Note: There is no need to read the VOA report. Go straight to the editorials at issue.
(a) I have a hard time finding the first one. (Neither is in the website of 新京报 -- neither Google nor Bing has a cache). Here it is.
My comment: Neither Google nor Bing nor Yahoo has a cache. The according to Google ("19 minutes ago" -- it is 10 pm EDT, Apr 11, 2016), Beijing Daily 北京日报 re-published online a second time, but this time changed part of the title to "XX." (The first time, Beijing Daily re-published it for the first time, which was deleted, and Google cache does not work, even now.)
So that it is ensured people can read it, I break my rule and cut and paste here the content of '这届XX不行' 为什么如此流行?