🗞️ Story file #162
California couple charged with child abuse in surrogacy scheme involving at least 21 children
Oct 6, 5 PM ET to Oct 9, 4 PM ET
- 18outlets carried it
- 🫏10 · 4 · 4🐘left · center · right
- 3 dayson the front pages
- 17front pages at once, at its peak
- 81 sof TV captions
- 1radio newscast
👣 How this story traveled: from the front pages that broke it, out through TV, radio and the shows, into what people retold and what fact-checkers examined, and on into the saga it is part of. Everything here is matched to the story by our tools, so a link can be wrong; the trackers' pages say how each is made.
- Oct 6, 5 PM ETfirst on a front page: Los Angeles Times
- Oct 7, 12 AM ETfirst on TV: CNN
- Oct 7, 2 AM ETfirst on the radio: ABC News Update
- Oct 7, 2 PM ETpeak: on 17 front pages
📰 Spread
the front pages that ran it, hour by hour
📡 wire copy: 1 outlet ran the AP headline nearly word for word (Chicago Tribune)
📌 linked by aggregators: Google News
💬 quoted: “house of horrors” 5 “unprecedented” “found suffering unprecedented abuse” 2
✏️ 4 outlets ran more than one headline on it (reworded, or a follow-up)
- ABC News (2 wordings): “Couple charged in 'unprecedented' child abuse case of surrogate-born children: DA” → “Couple charged in 'unprecedented' child abuse case”
- AP (2 wordings): “California couple arrested on child abuse charges in horrifying surrogacy probe” → “California couple arrested on child abuse charges in horrifying surrogacy probe - AP News”
- BBC (2 wordings): “California pair charged with abusing at least 14 surrogate-born children” → “'House of Horrors': California couple accused of abusing surrogate-born children”
- NBC News (2 wordings): “California couple with 21 children, most born via surrogates, charged in ‘house of horrors’ abuse case” → “Couple with 21 children, most born via surrogates, charged in ‘house of horrors’ abuse case”
Every outlet's first headline (18), left to right by AllSides rating
HuffPost
Couple Arrested On Child Abuse Charges Allegedly Engaged In Surrogacy Scheme Oct 6, 4 PM ET
The Guardian
California couple charged with child abuse in surrogacy scheme involving at least 21 children Oct 6, 4 PM ET
ABC News
Couple charged in 'unprecedented' child abuse case of surrogate-born children: DA Oct 6, 8 PM ET
AP
California couple arrested on child abuse charges in horrifying surrogacy probe Oct 6, 6 PM ET
CBS News
California couple at center of surrogacy scandal arrested Oct 6, 3 PM ET
Los Angeles Times
‘House of horrors’: Parents at Arcadia surrogacy mansion charged with child abuse conspiracy Oct 6, 5 PM ET
NBC News
California couple with 21 children, most born via surrogates, charged in ‘house of horrors’ abuse case Oct 6, 5 PM ET
The Independent
California couple with 21 children arrested on ‘house of horrors’ child abuse charges Oct 6, 5 PM ET
The Washington Post
Parents of 21 children charged with abuse in ‘house of horrors’ surrogacy scheme Oct 6, 9 PM ET
USA Today
'House of horrors': California couple with 21 children charged with abuse Oct 7, 2 AM ET
BBC
California pair charged with abusing at least 14 surrogate-born children Oct 7, 6 AM ET
Chicago Tribune
California couple arrested on child abuse charges in horrifying surrogacy investigation Oct 6, 5 PM ET
Straight Arrow News
California couple arrested for allegedly running surrogacy ‘house of horrors’ Oct 7, 2 PM ET
WSJ
Los Angeles Couple Found With Mansion Full of Surrogate Children Is Charged With Abuse Oct 6, 6 PM ET
The Epoch Times
California Couple Charged With Child Abuse in Surrogacy Scheme Involving 21 Children Oct 7, 2 AM ET
The Sun
HOUSE OF HORRORS Parents of 21 arrested after kids 'found suffering unprecedented abuse' Oct 7, 11 AM ET
IJR
Arcadia Couple Arrested in 21-Child Abuse Probe Oct 6, 4 PM ET
The Post Millennial
Chinese couple harvested babies from surrogates then raised children in California 'house of horrors' Oct 8, 12 PM ET
📡 Broadcast
TV, radio, and the shows that talked about it
📺 On TV
- California Couple Arrested On Child Abuse Charges In Horrifying Surrogacy Probe CNN, 41 s
- COUPLE ARRESTED ON CHILD ABUSE CHARGES AMID SURROGACY PROBE CNN, 40 s
📻 On the radio
- ABC News Update, Oct 7, 2:32 AM ET: the lead
🧶 Retelling
what people online made of it
🦗 Nobody's retelling it online yet, as far as the daily reports of the last week can tell.
🗣️ names in it: California Arcadia California Department of Justice
🔎 Checking
what the fact-checkers looked into
🧐 No fact-checker has taken it on yet.
🧵 Persistence
the running story it belongs to
🌱 A story of its own so far: no saga yet.