"What interests me is how he determined that it was "in his mind" the best available translation. This has to do with "Translation" not "religion".
In my opinion, all Bible-based "religion" is developed purely based on individual human translation and/or interpretation of the Bible. I was a baptized JW for 13 years, and was raised by my mother as a JW as a child (I am now 28), so I am well aware of the NWT. I don't see a problem with using the NWT as a Bible reference, but given the past and current distrustful and dishonest actions of the organization that is responsible for the translation, I would not put a lot of trust in the translation of the NWT being more accurate over that of the Living Bible OR the KJV. Just my opinion.
By the way, I am not saying that his academic background is not important (I know the value of academics, my father had a Ph.D. in Education). However, in the face of common sense and plain fact, any academics is overrated.
WAW