Aw, I love Stephen King! (Although I'm sure most of you know that though!) As he said, he wasn't doing what other critics were forced to do on their limited time and just look at who did what and who died, he was looking at impact of the books and how they really did inspire so many people to read. And I think he's also write that children haven't all abandoned books for other pursuits and that there are still many very good authors writing entertaining books for them.
He's right about the Harry Potter books (as much as I criticise them!) being better then R.L Stine! Some of them were mildly amusing but I think he was losing heart by the time he wrote the 612th book
