When I look at this chart summarizing the Pew Survey of Press Accuracy perceptions in America, I see Press Accuracy increases at times of crisis and declines coinciding with three factors: 1) penetration of 24 hr cable news in the late 1980's, 2) FOX News ratings increases while challenging the accuracy/bias of the press from 1997 to 2007, and 3) From 2007-9, lack of investigative reporting on Iraq/Afghanistan and financial regulation enforcement. The implication is that the press is better at covering breaking news than investigative journalism.
Between 1985-88 (pre-Gulf War), the
introduction of Cable News coincides with lowered accuracy perceptions, with the
exception of the first Gulf War when viewers saw a lot of advantages to
the real time 24 hour coverage.
During the 1990's, while FOX News successfully increased ratings by challenging the accuracy and bias of iconic News brands, accuracy perceptions drop from around 50 to 37%. The accuracy numbers actually hold pretty steady around 37-39% from 1997 to ~ 2007. The exceptions are a high in 2001(probably post 9/11) when the number increased and most recently, ~2007-9. The most recent drops shouldn't be a surprise since the press never caught the gov't financial regulators oversight failure nor the realities of an exit strategy for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
In summary, there was a drop in accuracy perception from 55% to the @40+% probably due to the viewership growth of 24 hour cable news in the late 1980's. During the first Gulf War in 1989, the cable news coverage was so powerful that it restored perceptions. Then, in the 1990's, the Fox News network increased in prominence by raising questions about the accuracy and fairness of the news, resulting in a decline in perceived accuracy from about 50% to the 37-39% level, from 1997-2007. The most recent drop is not a surprise since the press failed to investigate two major stories.
The most frustrating finding for the press must be the low 18% perception of Press Fairness. One wonders if the public correlates lack of reporting on the financial industry with press bias. This must be pretty frustrating when financial pressure on the newspaper industry has led to investigative reporting cuts. "John Honderich of the Toronto Star fears that as 'newsrooms shrink and
editorial budgets collapse ... in-depth and costly [investigative]
journalism ... will disappear'." (http://intraspec.ca/propublica.php) Additionally, issues like credit derivatives and exit strategies are highly complex and challenging to communicate to a wide range of readers with varying levels of pre-existing knowledge.
The implication for new products in the news industry is a high value (read: paid) "watchdog" news operation. Paid members would include insider whistle-blowers and trained investigative reporters who collaborate to get the story right, news junkies who act as "a litmus test" for varying levels of understanding, and media brands interested in syndicating the appropriate version of the story for their audience. All members would contribute and earn credits for their participation. Those credits could be used to pay for more content. 
