Does it? In another HN thread there was a link posted to this article from 2004:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/25/opinion/the-public-editor-...
Apparently the actual staff of the NY Times are under no illusions about the even-handedness of their own work. And that was written over a decade ago. I'm not sure how you'd objectively define high standards or trustworthiness except in a circular manner.