Why has the State Department scaled down its stance on human rights?

The U.S. State Department has long compiled annual reports on human rights in other countries, but the recent edition from the Trump administration looks noticeably different. This has some outside observers questioning the department's methods. After putting out these reports since the 1970s, the State Department's latest iteration includes a slew of backtracks by the Trump administration about countries that have been accused of violating human rights.

What did the commentators say?

The reports contain individual databases about the human rights records of nearly every country in the world. But unlike prior editions, the latest reports "drastically reduce the types of government repression and abuse that the United States under President Donald Trump deems worthy of criticism," sai