11-25-2011 CANDID INTERVIEW: STAR'S DeARMOND REFLECTS ON 40 YEARS IN JOURNALISM Kansas City Star sportswriter Mike DeArmond will be covering the final "Border War" football game between Missouri and Kansas on Saturday as he has for 20 years as the beat reporter for the University of Missouri. The only difference is this will be the last time football game he will cover for the Star. DeArmond will conclude a 40-year journalism career dating back to 1971 at the McClatchy-owned paper. He will officially retire in February. During his career DeArmond has covered eight Olympics. He covered the Kansas City Royals as the beat writer from 1973 through 1980. Would he do it all over again? Not likely. "Probably not now," DeArmond told Bottom Line. "I'd hate to be a newspaper reporter in his 30s with all the uncertainty in the industry. We're doing more work now than ever with about one-third less people to do it." And while Mike DeArmond will officially retire from covering Missouri, his legacy will continue via his son Gabe, who writes and edits the Web site PowerMizzou.com focusing on Mizzou athletics. The DeArmond Mizzou connection is strong. Mike is a 1972 Mizzou journalism grad. Son Gabe graduated with his journalism degree from there in 1998. Daughter, Cortney is a 2001 Mizzou alum. Even wife, Barbara, is an MU grad. Mike DeArmond has adapted to the new forms of reporting, but that doesn't mean he is necessary wild about them. "The Internet Age has changed so many things about the job I trained to do," he says. "I've adapted to do video and blogs and twitter and facebook and all of that. "But the biggest change is that we are now reporting stories as they happen, which is problematic because the stories are not complete. It is like writing a story for publication based on the first half of a basketball game before the game is over." He feels that the current environment of instant news has some serious drawbacks. "You don't wait to research a story fully any more because you don't have the time to do it," he notes candidly. "Oh, some stories you report the same way without this problem. Features, basically non-news events. But if it is breaking news, you're writing the news as it is happening without time for reflection." A story Mike covered earlier this year pointed out the pitfalls of reporting "breaking news." Last March Mizzou basketball coach Mike Anderson announced he was leaving for Arkansas. A St. Louis columnist "broke" the story that Purdue's Matt Painter was going to be named Anderson's replacement. DeArmond could not confirm the Painter story, and refused to report it despite pressure to jump on the Painter bandwagon. When the dust cleared DeArmond was proven correct, and later announced the correct story that Miami's Frank Haith would be the new coach. "Always better to be right than first," he says. DeArmond candidly says that he will not miss some of the feedback he receives today from some readers. "I'll be real honest about something else. I liked this job a lot more when I had less contact with some of my readers," he states. "The majority of readers who email me or contact me as an individual are just fine and I'm happy to interact. "But I've grown tired of the crowd that calls me an alcoholic or a meth user based on the happenstance that I cover Missouri and they happen to be a fan of another team." The difference between a good story and a bad one? "One thing that has always been true," he says. "For most people a good story is one that supports a perception they already have. A bad story is one that does not support that preconceived notion." DeArmond was recently informed that he will be honored as only the 12th person inducted into the Missouri "Media Hall of Fame." His photo will be hung in the press box. The Journalism profession loses when someone like Mike DeArmond retires...
11-29-2011
PERCEPTIONS "Very nice piece on Mike's retirement from the Star. One thing that I thought was particularly insightful was the quote about how, for most people, a good story is one that supports a perception they already have." --Wayne Godsey
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