Dealt with operation on journalist (9)
I believe the answer is:
processed
'dealt with' is the definition.
(processing is a kind of dealing with)
'operation on journalist' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'journalist' could be 'ed' (short for editor) and 'ed' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'process' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for processed that I've seen before include "Dealt with, moved things along" , "Refined (of food)" , "Put something through a series of stages" , "Put something through a series of operations" , "Put a product through a series of stages" .)