I agree that it's mainly just the usual incompetence / laziness / sensationalism / narrative bandwagon jumping we see in all aspects of press coverage magnified by Apple's increased prominence, but there's also some kind of weird press interest multiplier effect possessed by Apple.
In this specific case, yes... but stepping back, isn't this just as likely to be different 'journalists' doing the same non-Apple-specific thing -- skewing their reporting to suit either their assumptions or biases -- as it is to have anything at all to do with Apple?