Poor journalist, meeting editor, coughed uncomfortably? (6)
I believe the answer is:
hacked
'coughed uncomfortably?' is the definition.
'poor journalist meeting editor' is the wordplay.
'poor journalist' becomes 'hack'.
'meeting' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'editor' becomes 'ed'.
'hack'+'ed'='HACKED'
(Other definitions for hacked that I've seen before include "like a lot of voicemail" , "Chopped at, or broke into computer system" .)