There is, admittedly, a glaring concern with the media adopting a pro-democracy bias, at least in 2021: It effectively means being pro-Democratic, for now. As the Atlantic’s Barton Gellman put it: “I’m not trying to advance the interests of the Democratic Party in my reporting. But we have only one party right now that is small-D democratic. … And so I am calling out the mainstream of the Republican Party for its lies and for its election subversion.”

That creates a risk. Already, Trump’s toxic cries of “fake news” about accurate reporting have poisoned Republican voters against mainstream news outlets. An unapologetic pro-democracy bias could make that distrust even worse.

But as Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University, told me: “If being pro-democracy — while maintaining high standards in matters like verification, proof, weight-of-evidence, fairness and intellectual honesty — draws a backlash from some, maybe that’s a fight we need to have.”

For reporters in Washington, witnessing the horror of Jan. 6 should have been a wake-up call to the dangers of authoritarianism. It certainly shouldn’t mean a return to horse race coverage and “both sides-ism.”