MARGARET SULLIVAN: Is media coverage of Trump too negative? You’re asking the wrong question.

Harvard professor Thomas E. Patterson, the study’s author, sees trouble on that last point.

“The press is focusing on personality, not substance,” he said recently on public radio’s “On the Media” program. And that reflects “not a partisan bias but a journalistic bias,” the tendency to seek out conflict. (No mystery there — it’s more interesting.)

“It’s the press in its usual mode, and that erodes public trust,” Patterson said.

And then there’s the dirty little secret that every journalist knows — Trump stories drive ratings and clicks. The word “Trump” in a headline vastly increases its chances of getting attention. (We’re all guilty; see above.)

Say what you will about the president, he continues to have one thing dead right: Donald Trump is a ratings machine.

Thus, home pages of news organizations or hour upon hour of cable news are relentlessly focused on the president — not always because of solid newsworthiness.

“Democracy dies in darkness,” indeed. But there’s a difference between shining a light and starting fires.