WBZ News (Boston, Mass.). 2010-09--excerpts, The President's Aunt: America's Most Famous Illegal
Summary: "Critics accuse illegal immigrants of taking advantage of our system and not paying into it. President Obama's Aunt, Zeituni Onyango, is one of those immigrants. For years she was living here illegally in Boston Public Housing. In our research we even discovered she's getting disability checks. During his campaign the President acknowledged that Onyango was his Aunt and that she was here illegally. His critics used her to try and hurt Obama's chances for election. When he won, her status quickly changed. A judged who had ordered her out of the country reversed his decision and granted her asylum. Every television network tried getting to Aunt Zeituni for a sit down interview, but she refused. A few weeks after she was granted asylum she sat down with just one reporter who spent months working to get the interview. When the two part series aired her explosive comments rekindled the debate over immigration reform. This exclusive interview never got picked up by the networks. One 60 minutes producer who loved the story said they wouldn't touch it for fear of losing access to the President. Instead it went viral and more than 1 million people watched it online."--2010 Peabody Awards entry form.
Corporate Producers: WBZ-TV 4 (Television station : Boston, Mass.)
Persons Appearing: Jonathan Elias
Broadcast Date: 2010-09-20 -- 2010-09-21
