Journalists don't "allow" someone to stay mum... Elon will say what he wants to say.
They're proposing to do away with access journalism, or at least access biographies.
The entire deal, spoken or unspoken, is: "you give me the inside scoop, and I'll skip the uncomfortable questions and lionize you."
The article argues (and I agree) that's a bum deal for all concerned except the biographer and the biographed.
An interviewing journalist can, and should, ask the question and report the answer (or lack thereof).
> Yes, Isaacson spoke to “adversaries” like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, but not (at least per the list) to line workers, not to Jenna, not to anyone whose family member died in an Autopilot crash, nor anyone who tried to organize a Tesla plant.
Cue joke about being silenced: "oh, you know the ones".