A holder of any one of myriad possible jobs in the field of journalism, from the noble reporter of news on down to the gossip columnist or the
sleazeball who puts his byline on a press release and submits it unaltered for publication. Derives from the verb "to journalize," which shares with the
public's respect for journalists the fact of being non-existent. For reasons as yet undetermined, actual respectable reporters have even embraced this
vacuous label.
From what he told me about his job I thought he was some kind of
hard-nosed reporter dedicated to getting at the truth and telling it to the public -- but when I asked
him again what he told me was, he was a journalist. So I shot him in the head.