Bleat about journalist being tardy (7)
I believe the answer is:
belated
'being tardy' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'bleat about journalist' is the wordplay.
'about' indicates an anagram.
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'bleat' is an anagram of 'belat'.
'belat'+'ed'='BELATED'
(Other definitions for belated that I've seen before include "Bleated, being overdue" , "Coming too late" , "Behind time" , "After the proper time" , "After due time" .)