This day in WND history: NBC affiliate solicits cash for illegals

One of 13 illegal aliens displaced by a fire in West Palm Beach, Florida. WPTV-TV made an on-air plea Dec. 1, 2006, to help the group, without identifying them as illegal aliens

NBC affiliate solicits cash for illegals

Dec. 4, 2006: WND broke the astounding story of how the top-rated television station in Florida called on viewers to put aside their ''political beliefs'' to help 13 illegal aliens trying to "survive the American Dream" after being displaced by a fire – never mentioning on the air the immigrants were in the U.S. illegally.

Jamie Holmes, a reporter for channel 5, NBC affiliate WPTV in West Palm Beach, avoided referring to the families as illegal aliens or undocumented immigrants in an original on-air report, instead describing them as ''the hard-working kind of people which created such a controversy in America this year ... .''

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Station officials never returned calls seeking comment on how the station decides which stories to become advocates for, why the original report didn't note the families are illegals, should the station be soliciting on behalf of those who are breaking the law and how it is decided when reporters should admonish viewers as to how they should respond.

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