Its kind of funny to claim 10+ years of fawning press coverage when the reality was that electric cars and by extension Musk go ridiculed and called dangerous and unsafe in the media. The same goes for every little issue with SpaceX.

Coverage of Musk has always been mixed and in main stream media often covered negatively.

Maybe in the more techy press it was mostly positive. But even then, go threw history here on HN. The idea that Tesla was scam and just about to go bankrupt was common wisdom and anybody who disagree got down-voted.

So the idea that positive press coverage is responsible is kind or ridiculous.

Its more like its the endless pro-vs-anti Musk wars that lead to this effect. And that happens in the media as it does on HN.