This rendition reads like a Pinter play.

(pause)

With uncomfortable pauses.

(pause)

That force you try to fill in what's missing.

The most important rule for writers is "Know your audience." Since the audience for web headlines includes search engines and people who are scanning for subject keywords, Nielsen has pointed out a perfectly good reason for a writer to choose to use a passive verb.

If the identity of the actor is unknown or unimportant, that's another good reason. Less noble reasons may include a desire to mislead, or unfamiliarity with this basic grammatical concept.

Grammatically speaking, catchphrases like "avoid passive verbs" or "show, don't tell" are useful style guidelines, not rules.

Assuming that there is a good reason for an academic journal to cite a weblog, wouldn't it make more sense to cite the permalink of a specific entry, rather than the blog's home page?

In 2003, I posted a suggestion for how to cite a blog entry in MLA style, and how to cite a blog comment in MLA style. On the KairosNews website, there was some discussion of alternatives, during which the Columbia Guide to Online Scholarship came up.