NPR blog on Wikipedia
The only way I think that Wikipedia can be a trusted source of information would be to do a background check on the person/computer that did the editing. If this is a credible source then I think that Wikipedia could be a trusted source of information. However, this is very time consuming work, and it would probably just be easier to find a good, credible source and not have to worry about whether or not you could use this as a source for a paper. Wikipedia is edited by many people, so the odds of getting a bias source that puts their bias opinion on Wikipedia is very likely. They might put the truth on the site but neglect a few important details.