Readers question news judgment for centerpiece

Romenesko carried this blurb today:

SacBee readers gripe about prominent play for atheists story
Sacramento Bee
A story about atheists was a recent Bee Metro centerpiece, while a piece about a church gathering got secondary play. "Well, as you might imagine, the juxtaposition caused more than a few Christian readers to complain about how offended they were and ask whether The Bee had lost its way," writes Armando Acuna. "Those who criticize the paper for publishing the atheists' story or for 'taking sides' by making it the centerpiece don't understand what we do."

I'd really like to read more about it, but I clicked over to the newspaper site and was confronted with a request to register. Ten minutes later, confounded by registering when I'd evidently previously registered, a subsequent wait for my forgotten password to be mailed, etc., I'd totally determined to cut and paste the entire story here as a protest against news site registrations, which I detest. Alas, foiled again. Once onto the site (I'm really stubborn), I couldn't find any trace of the story. So now this post is a complaint about online sites that don't carry the full range of news debate with regard to the print edition. So all I can do at this point is refer you to Romenesko, who has other tasty links related to this kind of story available.

Slate: Prescription woes beat Mukasey for USAT lead

USA Today's news judgment takes a hit in Slate's "Today's Papers" today:

In its lead story, USAT focuses on a new federal rule that aims to crack down on Medicaid fraud by requiring prescriptions to be written on tamper-resistant paper. But doctors are complaining that the rule can't be implemented by the time it goes into effect. "In our state, very few doctors use these kinds of pads," says one doc. Perhaps that's why the law was passed. What TP really wants to know is when did it become so difficult to buy paper? Still, USAT says that "if a patient has a prescription on the wrong type of paper, pharmacists can fill it while seeking the prescriber's confirmation by phone, fax, e-mail or tamper-proof paper within three days." So, what's the problem? This was more important than the Mukasey nomination?