Crossword Genius

Pair of journos about to accept shocking rag's disgrace (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

degrade

'disgrace' is the definition.
(synonyms)

'pair of journos about to accept shocking rag's' is the wordplay.
'pair of' shows that letters should be duplicated (I've seen 'pair' mean this).
'journos' becomes 'ed' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'about' says the letters should be written backwards.
'to accept' is an insertion indicator.
'shocking' is an anagram indicator (I've seen this in other clues).
'ed' back-to-front is 'de'.
'de' duplicated is 'dede'.
'rag' anagrammed gives 'gra'.
'dede' going around 'gra' is 'DEGRADE'.

(Other definitions for degrade that I've seen before include "Deprive of dignity" , "Break down, deteriorate" , "Break down; debase" , "Demean, cheapen" , "Decompose chemically" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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