Bill Moyers will be the first to interview the Reverend Jeremiah Wright since the controversy over his comments and his relationship with Barack Obama. ______________________

New York, NY- April 21, 2008 - The Reverend Jeremiah Wright will be interviewed on PBS this week by Bill Moyers in his first broadcast interview with a journalist since he became embroiled in a controversy for his remarks and his relationship with Barack Obama. Wright, who retired in early 2008 as pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where Senator Obama is a member, has been at the center of controversy for comments he made during sermons, which surfaced in the press in March. The interview with Bill Moyers will air on Bill Moyers Journal on Friday, April 25 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings at www.pbs.org/moyers) PBS's critically acclaimed public affairs series Bill Moyers Journal stays on -- and often ahead of -- the news cycle with analysis, interviews, and reports every week.

Comments (24)

1. Geez, is Wright a "free agent" or are the Obama people that stupid?

   Does anybody think that this will HELP Obama? That somehow Wright, with a friendly ear like Moyers, is going to "explain away" his sermons and thereby kill the issue for Obama in the Fall?

   No way in hell. It'll resurrect it and keep it alive. ESPECIALLY if Wright isn't careful and lays another "word-bomb" out there for Moyers, coming off like Farrakhan.

   Obama should take some of his campaign cash and pay for a nice long SEVEN MONTH vacation for his former pastor...in some place like Tasmania or a mission trip to Kazakhstan. And keep him OFF of any television.

   Posted by Mask at 04/22/2008 @ 3:58pm

2. A long interview format with a REAL journalist like Moyers: I think some significant number of people will come away wondering "what was all the fuss about?"

   Posted by Egalitare at 04/22/2008 @ 4:14pm

3. No way in hell. It'll resurrect it and keep it alive. ESPECIALLY if Wright isn't careful and lays another "word-bomb" out there for Moyers, coming off like Farrakhan.......

   blah, blah, blah....

   ~Maskot

   I'm looking forward to Moyers' Journal episode this Friday.

   His show is must see TV for anyone who values sanity and insight, and can be viewed online in streaming video --see his recent episode on the bureaucratic atrocity that is American farm subsidy policy for a stellar example.

   I would wager a sizable sum that Moyers' Wright interview will be not only pleasant, but a highly informative and useful counter-image to the hugely overblown, stripped down, and decontextualized snippets that we've been thus far bombarded with --not that the so-called mainstream media will be spending any time rebroadcasting sound-bites of Moyers' interview.

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 04/22/2008 @ 4:14pm

4. If we judge people by our associations, then Jesus Christ, himself would not stand a chance. He associated with the dregs of the earth. The media analogy is flawed. Most of us don't buy such trash. Hillary said that she would leave that church because of Wright's remarks. Hillary did not leave her man what about this association. There's is a lot of fire out there if folks want to play this game. We are more interested in, health, the war, education, poverty, economy, global warining, cleaning up the Constitution, etc.

   Posted by onsseee at 04/22/2008 @ 4:17pm

5. This of course means that Bill Moyers hates America, as does anyone who knows him.

   I'm not sure how Obama will be able to survive this new gaffe, we'll need much polling, much punditry discussion, much feigned outrage, Hillary will have to cut ads attacking Obama on this, you know, just in case the Republicans would attack Obama because Bill Moyers interviewed Rev. Wright.

   Posted by bridoc at 04/22/2008 @ 4:22pm

6. Posted by EGALITARE 04/22/2008 @ 4:14pm

   Posted by B_KOOL_66 04/22/2008 @ 4:14pm

   Yeah, guys, because that's the way the "real world" of politics works, huh?

   And NO WAY that folks can blame Gov. Dukakis for a furlough program that his Republican predecessor implemented....and NO WAY that anybody could EVER make people doubt John Kerry's honorable service in Vietnam.

   That's impossible.

   And a long, detailed interview with Jeremiah Wright by Bill Moyers will "clear up the whole thing"...show it to be a "brouhaha" ("Brohaha?...hahaha" "Hahaha"...(door slams) "Wait a minute what about your doorknocker?"..."We already have one"....sorry, slipped into a little "Firesign Theatre" there)...

   Sure, guys. That's the way it'll happen...and old "Maskot's" idea that it will merely stir things up again, give even MORE ammo to the Republicans, and that an out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach to Wright might be more positive....THAT's the false assumption.

   Posted by Mask at 04/22/2008 @ 4:22pm

7. I agree with Mask on this one. Wright needs to disappear for a while. His very presence, no matter what he says, will only stir up a hornet's nest of controversy. He's too hot a topic to just let die.

   It's a pity too because if one were to listen to his sermons, he's a pretty good speaker in his own right...er wright.

   Posted by FritztheCat at 04/22/2008 @ 4:38pm

8. Re: Bill Moyers Journal

   Off the immediate topic, but well worth the 25 minutes of your time. The link I've posted below is an expose' of reporting done originally by the Washington Post, and represents a Smithsonian quality example of government waste and fraud at the taxpayer's expense --just the sort of thing that the torch-bearing right-wing radio crowd that (oddly) frequents The Nation would ostensibly deplore.

   Learn how the space shuttle explosion over the American Southwest led to farm subsidies (intended for drought relief) for farmers living under the shuttle's path.

   Cash Cows & Cowboy Starter Kits.

   ~Perhaps we'll see more of these Rush Limbaugh Republican types becoming aficionado's of Bill Moyers Journal............NOT.

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 04/22/2008 @ 4:43pm

9. National Public Radio Blogs 17 March 2008 http:// www.npr.org/ blogs/news/2008/01/ barack_obama_and_the_influence.html

   '...Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, however, is not so crazy about Wright's message. He writes that in 1982 Wright founded Trumpet Newsmagazine; his daughters serve as publisher and executive editor. And Cohen takes exception to the magazine's naming of Louis Farrakhan as the winner of the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award, saying he was a man who "truly epitomized greatness."

   Cohen, however, believes that Farrakhan "epitomizes racism" for most Americans. He adds that he sees nothing in Obama's record that supports anti-Semitism of any kind, or agrees with the award given to Farrakhan. But praise for an "anti-Semitic demagogue is not a minor difference or an intrachurch issue."

   "The Obama camp takes the view that its candidate, now that he has been told about the award, is under no obligation to speak out on the Farrakhan matter," writes Cohen. "It was not Obama's church that made the award but a magazine. This is a distinction without much of a difference. And given who the parishioner is, the obligation to speak out is all the greater. He could be the next American president. Where is his sense of outrage?"...'

   Posted by HonestLiberal at 04/22/2008 @ 4:46pm

10. Posted by HONESTLIBERAL 04/22/2008 @ 4:46pm

    The Beast, at Tenagra.

    Posted by Mask at 04/22/2008 @ 7:26pm

11. Posted by JOMAMMA 04/22/2008 @ 5:33pm

    While I agree, I have to add that the message in the sermons I listened to (which to be honest was difficult as I'm not Christian) were not the same tenor (sp?) that the 30 second soundbyte was lifted from. So when people say how can Obama have stayed in that church for 20 years, I can see how. It appears that the good Rev's sermons didn't take on such a drastic note until he had retired and became a freelance preacher, so to speak.

    Still, I'd consider him a radical now in his later years.

    Posted by FritztheCat at 04/22/2008 @ 7:41pm

12. If it takes a Bill Moyers to go camp out in the closet... to prove there are no skeletons in there, then so be it.

    Transparency... nothing to hide... nothing to lose...

    Let the games disappear for good.

    Posted by ttr at 04/22/2008 @ 7:58pm

13. Posted by Bolter at 04/22/2008 @ 8:02pm

14. I have seen Rev. Wright interviewed before and, if he performs as usual, he will certainly not help Obama. However, Moyers' show has always seemed staged to me and, perhaps, Wright will have the oppertunity to practice his answers.

    Posted by RAGGEDSTEP at 04/22/2008 @ 8:07pm

15. This whole episode makes me really disgusted with the news media. Compare how the media treated Rev Wright and Obama to how they treat Pat Robertson and the religious right. When a white reactionary preacher says "God hates gays" and that they and planned parenthood are directly responsible for disasters, the media say nothing. But if you are black and say " God damn America" you and anyone associated with you is enemy #1. Yet another example of white and conservative privilege.

    Posted by Bolter at 04/22/2008 @ 8:12pm

16. If white men do not vote for Clinton because she is a woman, they are called sexist. If whites do not vote for Obama because he is black, they are called racists. If blacks vote for Obama because he is black, why are they not called racists?

    Posted by Dr. Jim at 04/22/2008 @ 8:45pm

17. If blacks vote for Obama because he is black, why are they not called racists?

    Posted by DR. JIM 04/22/2008 @ 8:45pm

    Look at Frankgrits and Eulers post. They are called racist.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 04/22/2008 @ 8:49pm

18. Posted by DR. JIM 04/22/2008 @ 8:45pm

    Why are women who vote for Hillary because she is a woman not called sexist?

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 04/22/2008 @ 8:50pm

19. Some people call people names.

    Other people listen.

    Two of those three peoples need to grow up.

    Posted by ttr at 04/22/2008 @ 9:05pm

20. Chris Rock on the Rev. Wright controversy:

    "A 75-year-old black man who hates white people. Is there another type of 75-year-old black man? Do you realize his whole third grade class was lynched?"

    If I had to repudiate every old black dude who expressed his frustration with America I would have had to disown my dad who was a combat Merchant Marine veteran, 1942-46.

    Posted by nyknicks12 at 04/22/2008 @ 9:09pm

21. If I had to repudiate every old black dude who expressed his frustration with America I would have had to disown my dad who was a combat Merchant Marine veteran, 1942-46.

    Posted by NYKNICKS12 04/22/2008 @ 9:09pm

    I feel you.

    My father and 2 of my uncles were "Redballers" during the Liberation of France. My father took his Master's degree from Michigan (because Jim Crow laws in Virginia prevented him from using his G.I. Bill benefits in the white-only graduate programs in-state) and ended retiring after 35 years as a shipyard tool clerk. Until the mid-70s, he was supervised by young white men who never attended high school.

    No, these men have NOTHING to be "bitter" about.

    Posted by Egalitare at 04/23/2008 @ 08:21am

22. 'Compare how the media treated Rev Wright and Obama to how they treat Pat Robertson and the religious right. When a white reactionary preacher says "God hates gays" and that they and planned parenthood are directly responsible for disasters, the media say nothing.' -- Bolter

    '...And this clerical vileness has now reached the point of disfiguring the campaigns of both leading candidates for our presidency. If you think Jeremiah Wright is gruesome, wait until you get a load of the next Chicago "Reverend," one James Meeks, another South Side horror show with a special sideline in the baiting of homosexuals. He, too, has been an Obama supporter, and his church has been an occasional recipient of Obama's patronage. And perhaps he, too, can hope to be called "controversial" for his use of the term house nigger to describe those he doesn't like and for his view that it was "the Hollywood Jews" who brought us Brokeback Mountain. Meanwhile, the Republican nominee adorns himself with two further reverends: one named John Hagee, who thinks that the pope is the Antichrist...' -- Christopher Hitchens -- Slate.com 24 March, 2008

    Posted by HonestLiberal at 04/23/2008 @ 09:04am

23. I can't see how Obama can claim he does not know what is going on in a church he's attended for 20 years. If that's true how can I be confident he will SEE what is going on in the world or oue country? Come on.

    People are losing site of the fact Hillary would be ahead if Micigan and Florida voters were counted. They will be in November and they will remember being disqualified.

    Racism, yes it's alive and well and has been taught at Trinity church since 1979. Black Theology has been taught there since 1979. Black Theology teaches black people their problems are because of "white" people. Look it up, please. Also look up Nation of Islam, wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation_of_Islam, Black Muslim and read the platform, this is in line with Black Theoeogy. Look at this link it shows Trinity has been teaching/preaching :http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/000316/hopkins.shtml , Why is everyone turning a blind eye to this?

    Black Theology and Black Muslim have nothing to do with religon. Black Theology and Black Muslim is a MOVEMENT. Please read the links and decide for yourself. Black preachers of all dominations are teaching Black Theology, again, not a religon a movement.

    Posted by dlily at 04/24/2008 @ 12:12am

24. It is amazing to read and hear so much mess! I truly believe that it is time to look at the real picture. Pastor Wright has all rights and priviledges to say and do whatever he wants to do. The black church community has been raised to inject large doses of direct understanding and healing for racial issues whether it be 1962 or 2008. Be advised that when preachers are scared and tend to do what the media and community say and want to hear, the are called pimps in the pulpit, but when the preacher speaks a word that not only impacts their lives but stuns them into looking outside of the box, he is called a pastor. You have just viewed Pastor Wright!

    Posted by revkim at 04/26/2008 @ 10:46am