Fry has never made any attempt to hide his love of Apple gear so from that point of view the tone of the article is hardly a surprise. Plus Apple is hardly likely to invite someone to their HQ who will trash their latest gizmo at every turn.
The fact that he even managed to get into the same room as Steve Jobs also speaks volumes about Apples view of Fry's likely response to the iPad. Jobs is notoriously difficult to get to talk to directly and rather prickly when he is interviewed to the point that he'll just sod off if he doesn't like the question(s).
Having said that, one of the first things Fry covers when he meets folk is to cover the criticisms of the product (third paragraph on page 1).
You might not like the response but were you expecting anything else from senior Apple employees?