Do you realize that journalists don't get to pick how they spend their time? They're just like other employees: a manager decides what they should be working on.
In this case, management had wanted the Holmes interview. The journalist couldn't deliver that, but came back with the seed for a different story: is Theranos actually doing finger-prick tests? We don't know who decided not to pursue that story, but it seems reasonable to assume it wasn't the journalist.
Now you want the employee fired for that decision. It's totally unfair. If you want journalists to be free from employment constraints, you should be donating to individual freelancers so they'd have financial freedom.
In this case, management had wanted the Holmes interview. The journalist couldn't deliver that, but came back with the seed for a different story: is Theranos actually doing finger-prick tests? We don't know who decided not to pursue that story, but it seems reasonable to assume it wasn't the journalist.
Now you want the employee fired for that decision. It's totally unfair. If you want journalists to be free from employment constraints, you should be donating to individual freelancers so they'd have financial freedom.