Looking back at the first article, it seems like it was just a repost of some web-tabloid reporter's page on Techinsight. If you look at some of MAKI's reports on that site, they're like... gossip columns about celebrities and their issues like affairs and addictions to alcohol. (
http://japan.techinsight.jp/?s=MAKI&x=0&y=0) Hardly "media coverage" really...
Though the J-CAST article seemed a little alarming, they used sources like Yahoo!Answers Japan (the American version of which we all kind of know to be a little fishy/crazy at times) and surfing YouTube to refer to performances she'd been terrible in. It doesn't seem like the article was created to do much other than bash Ayu. Whoever wrote it must really not like her that much...