There’s nothing the media love more than a story about themselves. And if it isn’t about them, they’ll make it so.

A particularly shameless example of this never-ending navel-gazing was a briefing the State Department held last week upon the release of its 2017 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The latest edition of this document, issued annually by congressional mandate since 1977, describes the condition of freedom in almost 200 countries and territories. Its publication is an important event, and not just because it highlights, in sometimes excruciating detail, abuses that many regimes around the world would prefer be kept quiet. These reports are some of the most-read on any U.S. government website and, as the department explains, “are used by a variety of actors, including the U.S. Congress, the Executive branch, and the Judicial branch as a factual resource for decision making in matters ranging from assistance to asylum.”