Why am I under arrest sir?

If you're just tuning in, you are watching our correspondent Omar Jimenez being arrested by state police in Minnesota.

We're not sure why our correspondent is being arrested.

Omar is just one of many journalists who are arrested during the recent Black Lives Matter protests.

That one happened live on national television.

But there were other journalists who were physically assaulted and tear-gassed, all while just doing their job.

And it was only the latest in a series of attacks on the press.

Welcome to Axios today. I'm Naila Boodoo and it's Friday July 3rd. For this Independence

Day we're dedicating this special episode to journalism and the role it plays in our democracy.

Journalism is in danger.

It's under attack and distrusted by many.

And tens of thousands of journalists are out of work.

Most of those job cuts were in local news where trust is highest. The extinction

level crisis in local journalism is today's one big thing.

I'm not different from many journalists and that I got my start in local news at my hometown

paper, the Miami Herald.

Local journalism is an issue I care deeply about and so does Sarah Fisher.

She's the media reporter for Axios.

Local media plays a huge role in elevating democracy. There have been studies that have

shown that absent a strong

local newspaper or broadcaster, local governments and municipalities make bad

decisions. And over the last 15 years, we've lost 2,100 newspapers, mostly in small and mid-sized towns.

...