When it comes to gathering and reporting the news, it is hard to beat the uncommon sense of legendary journalist Peter Kihss. I wrote several months ago that, as a young reporter, I learned from him that there are no such things as stupid questions to politicians, only stupid answers.

Now another Kihss gem applies, this time to the early media coverage of President Trump. More than three decades ago, Kihss and I were talking in the old newsroom of the New York Times when, after a frustrating day of seeing his story mangled by editors, he looked at me and said: Always remember, the job of the editor is to separate the wheat from the chaff — and publish the chaff in the newspaper.

I laughed, he didn’t, but his warning seemed especially prescient after Trump’s first Monday in the Oval Office. The new president delivered tons of wheat while most of the media was obsessed with the chaff.

The adage that actions speak louder than words is freely ignored when it comes to Trump. As part of their double standard, the ink-stained mob and broadcast confederates prefer to watch what he says instead of what he does.

Here’s Monday’s wheat: Trump signed an executive order freezing the federal workforce and another pulling the US out of the unpopular Asian trade deal. He met with manufacturing executives about forming an advisory panel on cutting job-killing taxes and regulations, then met with union leaders who emerged with praise for his approach to trade and his pledge to modernize America’s infrastructure.

Nearly all the union leaders, who represent carpenters, construction workers, plumbers and sheet-metal workers, endorsed Hillary Clinton, yet they called their meeting with Trump “incredible” and gave him a round of applause for spiking the Asian trade deal.

Richard Trumpka, head of the AFL-CIO, issued a statement hailing the decision, as well as Trump’s plan to reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement.

It was a jobs-jobs-jobs day, one that cut across partisan lines so American workers could benefit. The day had the added advantage of Trump keeping his campaign promises, which is not exactly a regular occurrence in Washington, so that alone should have been big news.

To top it off, Trump met with congressional leaders of both parties in a bid to build relationships of the kind President Obama scorned. That, too, could have been fodder for a story of contrasts, yet that meeting produced the chaff the media really wanted.

“Trump repeats an election lie,” the Times declared, a glaring accusation about the president insisting to the congressional leaders that illegal voters gave Clinton her popular-vote victory.

In eight years of lickspittle coverups, the Times never called Obama dishonest, let alone a liar. But they were enchanted by what books he read and how many almonds he ate each night.

But all Republicans, and Trump especially, start out by being treated like dirt, and it’s downhill from there. Other outlets raced to echo the Times “liar” charge and made much ado about other chaff, including press secretary Sean Spicer’s complaints about a “negative” drumbeat from the press.

Spicer was mocked as a crybaby, but his wheat was ignored. In his maiden briefing, he threw out the playbook by which organizations got to ask questions.

The first one is usually reserved for the Associated Press, but this time it went to The Post’s Daniel Halper. The second question went to the Christian Broadcasting Network and the third to Univision.

This was more than a symbol. Like Trump taking action on his jobs agenda, this was Spicer’s down payment on the plan to democratize access and end the practice of giving special privileges to major liberal organizations.

It’s a big deal, though most Americans probably didn’t hear about it, but they surely heard about the outrage that Tom Brady is friends with Trump. Although the Patriots quarterback is taking his team to the Super Bowl, he is being brutally sacked by the media mob because — I think this is the point — no decent person could be friends with Trump.

To be clear, Trump should stop talking about the election. It’s over and there is no dispute that he won and is president.

If he’s worried about voter fraud, he should lend his support to state laws requiring identification and make sure his Justice Department takes the issue seriously.

But the larger truth Day One reveals is that the media shows no desire to “reset” its hatred of Trump. The shock of his victory should have taught news organizations that their personal venom had blinded them to his appeal, but they are proving themselves worse than slow learners.

They still refuse to cover him with anything resembling traditional standards of fairness.

So once again, they are missing the things that matter to people outside their little bubbles.

The 63 million people who voted for Trump, along with fair-minded Americans everywhere, surely care more about his efforts to create jobs and less about offhand comments that have no bearing on their lives.

Journalists should be similarly focused if they are serious about restoring public trust. Instead, it looks as if they aim to dig deeper into their own bile and make themselves even more irrelevant to the great issues of our time.

A touch of ‘class’ from gov

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s record on education is mediocre, with one shining exception: his bold support for charter schools.

His leadership goes against the grain of the Democratic Party, which is bought and paid for by teachers unions. Mayor Bill de Blasio is typical of the party — he talks about helping kids trapped in failing schools while helping unions make sure those kids don’t have better options.

Fortunately, Cuomo’s support remains steadfast in his latest budget proposal. He calls for eliminating the cap on city charters, for raising funding and for eliminating a loophole that allowed obstructionists to thwart expansions.

From the start, Cuomo recognized that the best charters offer hope in high-poverty areas where traditional schools traditionally fail. The fact that Cuomo hasn’t been able to bring more Democrats along is proof of how so many Albany pols have sold out for union support.

Eliminating the cap is especially important because there should be no limit on good choices. And funding reinforces the fact that charters are public schools and deserve taxpayer support.

When those things are equal, it is amazing how much better charters do. And disgraceful that there aren’t more of them.

Say what, Madonna?

Madonna, who told anti-Trump marchers Saturday that “I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House,” now says the remark is being taken “wildly out of context.”

What other context could there be?

Gaga price is right

Lady Gaga won’t be paid for the Super Bowl halftime show.

I predict she’ll be worth every penny.