Unfinished article on reckless journalist being beaten (8)
I believe the answer is:
thrashed
'being beaten' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'unfinished article on reckless journalist' is the wordplay.
'unfinished' means to remove the last letter.
'article' becomes 'the' (the definite article in English).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'reckless' becomes 'rash' (synonyms).
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'the' with its final letter taken away is 'th'.
'th'+'rash'+'ed'='THRASHED'
(Other definitions for thrashed that I've seen before include "given whitewashing" , "Beaten soundly" , "Beat soundly" , "severely punished" , "Beat violently" .)