American journalist is employed (4)
I believe the answer is:
used
'is employed' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'american journalist' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'us'.
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'us'+'ed'='USED'
(Other definitions for used that I've seen before include "Sued (anag.)" , "Second-hand; exploited" , "Exploited - not new" , "Second hand" , "Accustomed, having been put into service" .)