dvw: good point. my own JW family takes the same stance, that these con artists were just men, that noone ever said any different, and that it doesn't really matter anymore. Somehow they look at their own tarnished past and ignore the rampant hucksterism that lead to it.
Interestingly, the conflicts with a core JW belief, that origins are important (could somebody point me to a link to that entire watchtower article?). They believe that we're all sinners at heart because adam and eve were sinners, therefore "sinnerism" got passed onto us. By the same logic, what has been passed on to them?