I'm a Kirkus reviewer who has been the book reviewer for Glamour, the book editor of the Plain Dealer, a vp (and awards judge) for the National Book Critics Circle, and a critic who's written for virtually all of the nation's leading newspapers (NYT, WSJ, WaPo, etc.) And this Comments box isn't large enough for me to respond to everything I disagree with in this piece. So I'll just say this:

Kirkus is the rare book review outlet that fact- checks *every word* (and every punctuation mark in quoted passages) of every review. It's also a place where a review typically gets read by at least three people: the editor, a fact-checker, and a copy editor. That means, essentially, that four people (counting the reviewer) have signed off on a review. You may disagree with Kirkus reviews, but its standards are among the highest and most ethical in the business.