I too was taken aback by Kurt Anderson's comment. Of course competition means judgment, as well as winners and losers. I've entered many writing contests, won a few, and mostly lost, as I would expect. But never have I seen or heard a judge (or an agent, or an editor for that matter) say anything about the "unequivocal" superiority of their choices. Instead they nearly always cite the subjective nature of such decisions. That Anderson felt the need to make such a comment implies that he was being either thoughtless, or defensive, or both.