Seems obvious to me. Tesla has an absurd valuation. Their CEO is the richest person alive (or was at one point) and has a cult-like status amongst many online fans. This person has historically used his loudspeaker to lie, pump, dump, you name it. Finally, Tesla as a company is premised on subverting an existing industry with very established players - it’s entertaining news when that doesn’t go according to plan.

Probably similar reasons why the press jumped all over every Apple mistake when Jobs was around.