Blog #3 Comparing Media

Bella Bond, a two-year-old known as “Baby Doe”, was found in a bag dead in the Boston Harbor in June.

On Friday Bella’s mother Rachelle Bond and her boyfriend Michael McCarthy were arrested and pleaded not guilty.

For television coverage, CNN did a 3 minutes, 23 seconds video on the arraignment Bond and McCarthy, providing background information on the disturbing cause of Bella’s death.

CNN quoted four sources including Michael Sprinsky, a friend of McCarthy’s who lived with the couple and tipped off investigators to reveal Bella’s identity and that McCarthy told him, “it was her time to die.”

According to Sprinsky, McCarthy repeatedly punched Bella until she was dead because she did not want to go to bed.

CNN also sourced the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families for two separate investigations of McCarthy in 2012 and 2013, determining that neglect of Bella was involved and necessary action was taken.

An interview with McCarthy’s attorney Jonathan Shapiro was also segmented into the video, proclaiming McCarthy’s innocence.  

In the conclusion of the video, CNN interviewed Joe Amoroso, the biological father of Bella, who gave an emotional response that hearing the news of his daughter’s death was one of the hardest things he ever had to deal with.

The television coverage conveyed more emotional sympathy for Bella’s death and disgust towards the alleged wrong doings of Bond and McCarthy.

This was executed by using videos and photos of Bella seemingly happy and videos of her dancing around, along with video of the actual site of the Boston Harbor where her body was discovered.

In the New York Times, the same story was four columns for a total length of 60 inches and provided six sources, the most out of the three media outlets.

The newspaper article sourced: assistant district attorney David Deakin; McCarthy’s attorney Jonathan Shapiro; Joe Amoroso, Bella’s biological father; Bella’s godmother Megan Fewtrell; Boston Gov. Charlie Baker and Linda Carlisle, a child advocate for the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.

The online Yahoo News report was 706 words long and used four sources.

The sources included: David Deakin but only referred to him as a prosecutor, Sprinsky, Bond’s attorney Janice Bassil, Bella’s godmother Megan Fewtrell and District Attorney Daniel Conley.

In the online article there are also mugshots of McCarthy and Bond and a graphic with a picture of Bella and police contact information.

The Yahoo News report also had a video from an ABC affiliate news station that was 1 minute, 40 seconds long, most resembling the television coverage in its emotional appeal of sympathy for Bella, the types of sources and use of video.