Public Safety
Journalists face danger every day, not just in war
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By ANTHONY CEPAK
Capital News Service
LANSING — As a teenager, photojournalist Steve Jessmore experienced the threat of danger while on assignment his first day at work. “The first assignment I went on at the Saginaw News, I had a gun pulled on me,” Jessmore said. “I was 18-19 years old, trying to go into a gym for this rec basketball league, and the guys were giving me hard time and wouldn’t let me in. But you have to stay calm and cool, and realize you are there to do a job.”
Now the assistant director of photos and image marketing at Central Michigan University, Jessmore was chief photographer at the Saginaw News and Flint Journal. Over his 23-year career, he covered two cities that historically have among the highest crime rates per-capita in the state.