"It's like saying that Star Track is one of your favorite shows"
No, it's not. It's like someone who doesn't know english mispronouncing a single syllable english word while reading an excerpt of a non-english book written by someone else that he quoted in his non-english book. And criticism of it would be just as silly.
There are degrees. This error isn't like an English speaker discussing French pronouns and commenting on the pronunciation of "moi" and saying it as "moo-ah". Gladwell's error was like saying it as "moy", rhyming with "toy".
The first error is completely understandable. The second one can't help but change one's perception of the writer... if one has any familiarity at all with the topic being discussed. For those who know nothing about it, it would seem like a triviality, much like "misspelling" the word igon values.
The only thing this is analogous to is the mispronunciation of a single syllable english word by a chinese author who doesn't speak english quoting a chinese language passage from another author while discussing their work. And it wouldn't make any sense to criticize that either.
"For those who know nothing about it, it would seem like a triviality"
English is my first language. If a speaker didn't speak english, was quoting a non-english passage from someone else and mispronounced the english word "two" as "swoh" I wouldn't think any less of him or his work, but I would think less of someone who thought it worthy of this kind of criticism.
No, it's not. It's like someone who doesn't know english mispronouncing a single syllable english word while reading an excerpt of a non-english book written by someone else that he quoted in his non-english book. And criticism of it would be just as silly.