I read Tolkien many times when I was younger. I heard Christopher Lee say he read TLOTR yearly. Lee was a bad ass, a commando in WW2 who apparently informed the actors on set what a man dying from have a knife in him really sounds like. Tolkien used to say to not over analyze his work. I don't know the background of theses speakers is, but I doubt they have the philological talent or education Tolkien had. I think they're looking for things just to find them. In a work as large in scope as Tolkien's, including appendices, The Silmarillion, and other works, I'm sure they can find something.