Squandered something deep-fried by journalist (9)
I believe the answer is:
frittered
'squandered' is the definition.
(frittering is a kind of squandering)
'something deep-fried by journalist' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'something' could be 'it' (both can refer to an object) and 'it' is present in the answer.
'journalist' could be 'ed' (short for editor) and 'ed' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for frittered that I've seen before include "What appears to be cooked in batter" , "Wasted little by little on frivolous things" , "Spent frivolously and unwisely" , "going to waste" .)