Well, both I would say.
Well, the goal of the leftist orgs is to make Tea Partyers look like the racists and morons that the lefties actually are.
As for the AP - perhaps they are doing a perfunctory story, which will be quickly forgotten, so they can claim later to have covered the slimy tactics of the left - should they be called on it.
Interesting times we live in. I think of them as the Winston Smith era of journalism.