If the goal of CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss is to put her network’s content in front of as many eyes as possible, her decision to hold a previously greenlit “60 Minutes” report on American deportees at El Salvador’s infamous CECOT prison was a rousing success. The situation has become a flashpoint in a larger debate over the network’s relation to the Trump administration and CBS’ obligations to the public discourse.

‘Earth-shattering moment’
While the “60 Minutes” CECOT report was initially “cleared by the network’s usual process and was previously vetted by standards, legal and senior editors,” Weiss’ insistence on an on-camera statement by the Trump administration, which previously denied a request for comment, has “fueled internal tensions” at the show and across CBS more broadly, said The Washington Post. “60 Minutes” reporter Sharyn Alfonsi’s account of what she deemed Weiss’ “political” interference seemed like the “earth-shattering moment that staffers have feared” since billionaire Larry Ellison and his son, David, purchased the network and installed Weiss at its top, said CNN.

The story being “factually correct” and having “undergone a legal review” didn’t seem to matter, said The Cut. Trump’s efforts to “reindustrialize the economy or prosecute his enemies have floundered,” but his plan to “corrupt the media is starting to work,” said Jonathan Chait at The Atlantic.

‘Confrontation and drama’
Alfonsi’s claim that Weiss gave the administration a “kill switch” over the network’s news reporting “sounds very bad,” said Graeme Wood at The Atlantic. But Weiss’ memo explaining her decision to CBS staff “does not say the segment should never run.” Rather, it stresses a need for “more confrontation and drama,” which is itself “more of what Weiss was brought in to CBS three months ago to provide.”

Nevertheless, there’s an “upside” to the fractured news landscape of which Weiss is now a major player, said The Cut. With corporate media “less powerful than it once was,” it’s “far harder for a strongman president like Trump to control the flow of information,” as demonstrated by the surge in bootlegged copies of the CECOT segment across social media.

People are turning their anger toward the security at Brown University following a shooting on the Ivy League campus earlier this month. The incident left two students dead and nine wounded, and questions abound as to whether the school’s response to the shooting violated federal law. As the Education Department pledges to look into the issue, security experts have mixed feelings.

Potential fine
Most of the debate surrounds the Clery Act, a federal law that “requires colleges and universities to report campus crime data, support victims of violence and publicly outline the policies and procedures they have put into place to improve campus safety,” said the Clery Center. Universities, as part of the act, must release an annual security report and issue “timely warnings in the event of an immediate, significant danger to the campus community,” said The Providence Journal.

If it’s determined that Brown violated the Clery Act, the school could be fined. This has happened before, as Virginia Tech “ultimately paid $32,500 in fines to the Department of Education” for alleged Clery Act violations following its 2007 shooting, said CNN.

‘Clery Act doesn’t touch it’
The federal law is often seen as a key lifeline because its “required reports can help families decide where to send their children to college,” said The Boston Globe. Universities that violate it can also “lose federal student aid if they do not follow their own published procedures.” But there are safety experts who say that in the case of Brown, the Clery Act does not apply.

While an affidavit claims the building where the shooting occurred lacks sufficient interior cameras, the Clery Act “does not require universities to have any specific protocols such as cameras,” said campus safety consultant Daniel Carter to the Globe. “Absent saying something in the annual security report about having surveillance cameras, the Clery Act doesn’t touch it.”

Many safety experts are “puzzled by the mention of cameras,” Peter Margulies, a national security and criminal law professor at Roger Williams University, said to the Globe. “That’s not really what the Clery Act is designed to do.”

Ballet student Shelly Ajiambo dances in a Christmas performance in the Kibera settlement of Nairobi, Kenya. At Project Elimu’s ballet school, young dancers learn classical ballet as part of a community-led arts program that fosters discipline, creativity and confidence.
Luis Tato / AFP / Getty Images

Winter is high cooking time. Some days, you will simply not want to leave the house while nonetheless craving, say, a steamy impromptu hot pot. Other days, you might ache to crank that oven dial and bake yourself a tray of brownies. These eight cookbooks are happy to help you on your wintry journeys.

‘All That Crumbs Allow’
Oh, the allure of a single-subject cookbook that’s fun and frugal. Authors Michelle Marek and Camilla Wynne have assembled an homage to economy and that most versatile of ingredients: breadcrumbs. Savory bread dumplings, two pastas made with breadcrumbs, a pumpernickel Black forest torte, a breadcrumb omelet, and a toast-and-jam semifreddo — this is thrift as joyful hedonism. (out now, $27.50, Kitchen Arts & Letters)

‘Bittersweet: The Five Tastes of Dessert and Beyond’
Sweetness without ballast fizzles. Thalia Ho knows this and has written a baking book that pinpoints the delicious interplay between sweet and the other five tastes. A few telling examples: miso in a caramel apple pie, soy sauce in ganache brownies, and sherbet meringues that are torched. Your sweet tooth will never know what hit it, nor will it want to go back. (Feb. 10, $35, Harvest)

‘Simply Donabe: Japanese One-Pot Recipes’
A donabe is a Japanese earthenware pot. It’s also the name of a style of one-pot dishes. Naoko Moore walks you through cooking an array of dishes in these beautiful, utilitarian vessels, including miso ramen, shabu shabu, crumbled tofu with carrots and edamame, and matcha tiramisu — one container, so many possibilities. (Feb. 10, $40, Amazon)