Passive vs. Active voice

So I understand that there is a serious difference writing in passive vs. writing in active voice but it is crazy to think that one or two words can make such a drastic effect on what the phrase means. For some, it seems so much easier to write in passive when doing news writing whether it be for broadcast or print but it is evident so many examples that one or two words can really make all the difference, even if it is just the Headline of a story.
A good example is this: A sentence like "The mayor's office fired five city workers today" is more informative than the sentence "Five city workers were fired today."

Writing in the passive voice often serves as a crutch for writers who don't want to take the time to figure out who is doing what.