I think I agree with this.
If I was making CD's I'd use any method I could to get the message out there. I haven't read the article but from what James said it is pretty standard stuff from Ian, he knows the circulation and he's tying to push his CD's. Whether this is to bring the world a whole new era of fantastic music or just to make a few quid is immateriel really. This is how he promotes his stuff and good luck to him.
I have been witness to Mr Levine's intense promotion techniques myself. When Jo, Martin & Myself were on RS's Jazz FM show, IL had purchased the first slot in every ad break to promote The Rocket Allniter. As we went into each ad break we started trying to mimic the whole thing. By the end of the show we were just about word perfect. I can't remember it now but it definitely started "I'm so excited !...."
As for whether Manifesto's standards are slipping - has it ever been any good? I haven't seen a copy for about 5 years but if I remember it consisted of some not to be trusted record reviews, a couple of short & confused editorials from scene "names", some biased reviews of events written by interested parties, normally one really good article on an artist or label, a load of adverts for rubbish and records that had been sold and the centre spread of photos of people gurning and/or off their tits. I've got some old ones somewhere so I'll root about for them and see how accurate I am.
Cheers
Paul