CHICAGO -- In a rare interview, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. said media organizations that circulated controversial sound bites of his sermons on the Internet wanted to paint him as "un-American" or "some sort of fanatic" in order to bring down Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

"I think they wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am un-American, that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at Trinity United Church of Christ," Dr. Wright told journalist Bill Moyers in the first interview he has granted since comments critical of U.S. policies surfaced on television and the Internet.

" 'And by the way, guess who goes to his church, hint, hint, hint?' That's what they wanted to communicate," he said. "They know nothing about the church."

Mr. Moyers is a member of Dr. Wright's Protestant denomination, the United Church of Christ. Excerpts from the PBS interview, conducted this week, were released yesterday. The interview will be broadcast on PBS's "Bill Moyers Journal" beginning today.

In his sermon excerpts circulated online, Dr. Wright suggested that the United States brought the Sept. 11 attacks on itself, and that the government had a role in spreading the AIDS virus in the black community. His remarks include "God damn America" and "U.S. of KKKA," condemning racism in America.

The fiery pastor preached his final sermon at Trinity in February and officially retires next month. The Internet controversy forced Mr. Obama to explain his 20-year association with the Trinity preacher.

A native of Philadelphia, Dr. Wright graduated from Howard University after a six-year stint in the military. He earned two master's degrees and a doctorate in theology from the United Theological Seminary. He became the pastor of Trinity in 1972 and has grown the church from 600 to more than 6,000 members.

The church, whose Web site refers to itself as "unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian," has 77 ministries, ranging from weekly visits to prisons to a support group for cancer survivors and has built two schools abroad in Ghana and South Africa.

"The blowing up of sermons preached 15, seven, six years ago, and now becoming a media event --not the full sermon, but the snippets from the sermon -- ... having made me the target of hatred, yes, that is something very new," Dr. Wright told Mr. Moyers. "I felt it was unfair. I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt -- for those who were doing that -- were doing it for some very devious reasons."

Dr. Wright, 66, who for four decades built his reputation on straight talk and imperviousness to politicians, has been atypically quiet in recent weeks -- canceling four appearances, declining all interview requests and bowing out of a news conference with other clergy.

In the PBS interview, Dr. Wright told Mr. Moyers: "The persons who have heard the entire sermon understand the communication perfectly. When something is taken like a sound bite, for a political purpose, and put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public, that's not a failure to communicate.

"Those who are doing that are communicating exactly what they want to do, which is to paint me as some sort of fanatic or, as the learned journalist from The New York Times called me, a 'wackadoodle.' " (Columnist Maureen Dowd used that term March 23 to describe Dr. Wright.)

The pastor said he was hurt by the unfair use of the sound bites, but understood why Mr. Obama had harsh words about his statements during a speech on race the Illinois senator delivered March 18 in Philadelphia amid the controversy.

Mr. Obama said portions of Dr. Wright's sermons condemning the United States were "not only wrong, but divisive," and presented a "profoundly distorted view" of the nation.

Dr. Wright said he is obligated to speak as a pastor, but Mr. Obama addresses audiences as a politician. In the interview, he said he has never heard Mr. Obama repeat or endorse any of the remarks that caused the uproar. "Absolutely not," Dr. Wright said. "I don't talk to him about politics.

"And so he had a political event, he goes out as a politician and says what he has to say as a politician. I continue to be a pastor who speaks to the people of God about the things of God."

North Carolina's Republican Party has produced an ad featuring Dr. Wright and Mr. Obama ahead of the state's May 6 primary, saying the senator is "just too extreme for North Carolina." Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, this week asked the state party not to run the ad, saying "there's no place for that kind of campaigning."

This Sunday, Dr. Wright will deliver a sermon at a Dallas church and later speak to the Detroit branch of the NAACP. Organizers of the Fight for Freedom Fund dinner haven't asked Dr. Wright for a copy of his NAACP speech, but they anticipate protests, a crush of cameras from the national media and a near-record crowd that could exceed 10,000 people at Detroit's Cobo Center.

"This is going to be one of the most exciting dinners we've ever had," said the Rev. Wendell Anthony, Detroit Branch NAACP president. "A chord has been struck. The timing is right. It's going to be on in Motown on Sunday."

For the NAACP, the stage offers redemption for Dr. Wright. But some fear that his speech could inflame race relations in a region that has struggled with them for years. "We hope that [Wright's] comments Sunday serve to unite a broader community, rather than divide it," said Robert Cohen, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Bloomfield Hills. He declined further comment.