RE: https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/116184060048303307
Considering how often the NYT in particular does this, despite being frequently called out for it, I can only conclude that it is a very deliberate choice. It's not as if journalism schools don't teach about how the passive case is used to deflect and evade. So when a journalist who has graduated from a journalism school and possibly even won a Pulitzer uses the passive case this way, they do so intentionally to deflect and evade.