Eagle writer and Bunty friend Chris Carlson gets deep (or maybe not?) on the subject of journalism. Says Chris, “I whipped up this parody on the newspaper industry set to the tune of ‘Downeaster Alexa’ by Billy Joel. I actually heard the song and saw
quite a few parallels to the route we’ve chosen.”

We here at Buntology were a little moved, but then again, we’re scrabbling around down here with Christophe. Journalism is hard, man!

Well I’m on the Berkshire Eagle sports desk,
And I’m working on All-Eagle teams
I have worked my way through the three seasons
But tonight they need copy in reams

I set up photos and picked up phones yesterday
Worked 50 hours, didn’t ask for extra pay
Like all reporters here, I’m under 29
Spent my tuition thinking it would all be fine …

So I could be a writer for my whole life,
And go where the work mattered the most,
Now I’ve worked at four different newspapers
and now the industry looks like toast

I’ve got bills to pay, and damn it, I need clothes,
Our pay is frozen and we have these darn furloughs
They say our paper isn’t what it used to be
But we’re at half staff and have half the space, you see

So if you see my poor old Berkshire Eagle,
And if you work with the pen and the pad,
Tell my boss I am too busy writing,
And citizen reporting is a fad

Now I put out the old Berkshire Eagle,
I write features and gamers and more
Now they tell me classifieds are shrinking
And our ad revenue’s just as poor

I am a writer, like my father was before.
Can’t make a living as a journo anymore.
There ain’t much future for a man who writes like me,
but there ain’t much work left for those writing honestly.