I also read it as ‘we’ meaning the Times as an organization. It’s probably not the best example, although a material one.

It’s Do Our Job, now adays. 

It’s more than a hop, skip, and a jump from the 250 year old ‘we’ to the civil war ‘we’ to the current day ‘we’. I don’t think you are implying they are and should be the same, so it doesn’t ring false.

‘weasel words’ seems to sum it up pretty well.