I think if you consider the audience this was written for, and consider the various caveats each of your citations will involve; the "last bit" does indeed seem to be true if you are evaluating in good faith rather than trying to discredit the piece on a technicality that is still useful for the layman.
That's a pretty big technicality. The potential implications if right or wrong are entirely different. I also don't understand how simply pointing this out is "trying to discredit the piece". I was about as passive as i could and made no comment about the author or his/her intentions.
