The media never fully learned how to cover Trump. But they still might have saved democracy.

As the cowbells clanged, car horns blasted and anti-Trumpers partied Saturday on my New York City street corner not long after TV networks called the presidential race for Joe Biden, I did what comes most naturally.

I checked my email.

Because I write about the press, people tend to share their thoughts with me about how national politics is being covered, not just in The Washington Post but throughout the mediasphere. Their views, as my father with Irish understatement might phrase it, are various.

“Put this on your refrigerator,” demanded...