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[off topic] There was a comic where someone slips Clark Kent information about an illegal plant dumping chemicals. He shows up as Superman and stops the crime, but the whistleblower is angry that Kent informed Superman instead of digging up the names of the real owners.
This is off topic, what does that scrawny journalist Clark Kent have to do with Superman?
Scrawny? Looks a bit overweight if you ask me.
He's a corn fed Kansas boy, that probably all muscle.
Kansas farm boy, that's critical. You don't get that physique just by living in Kansas and eating corn all day, you gotta have those years of hard child labor, too.
Conversely, there have been quite a few stories where Clark basically decides Superman would be inefficient at actually solving the issue, so he either busts out the handy dandy notebook and takes them down with his pen, or he calls in the big guns and tips off Lois (because the only thing more satisfying than smashing a corrupt asshole's things is siccing your Pulitzer winning wife on them).
He's a very good reporter. Got a real nose for a story, like he can see through walls or hear conversations behind closed doors or something. It's weird.
I think that George Reeves had the best Clark Kent. Most other versions play Clark for laughs. Reeves played him as a day-to-day reporter, easy going but not a chump.
I wouldn't say "most" versions play Clark as a chump, though Christopher Reeves is clearly playing up the "mild-mannered" schtick quite a bit in arguably the most well known depiction in the last 50 years.
Most versions play Clark as competent, they just don't bother to really dig into Clark as the crack reporter, because that's Lois' primary thing, so they give her that screentime.
The most recent animated show, My Adventures With Superman, actually does a good job of making Clark the reporter an integral part of the story.
I haven't seen My Adventures... yet. I have seen the non-bald Mxyzptlk and am filled with righteous indignation.
I think folks don't appreciate how the DC big characters actually work outside of their superheroics to fight the badguys.
The other example is Batman, People watch the Nolan movies and don't realize that 99% of the time Batman is doing detective work following up on leads from other super detectives, including Clark, or putting his vast wealth to work trying to uproot the poverty and corruption in Gotham without getting killed by the entrenched interests making use of that poverty and corruption.
His supporting cast is literally just him being the world's most over the top big brother program member, save entirely other lead superheros, everyone in Batman's belfry is some degree of rescue case from the streets or an abusive past life.