Nine years ago, I published a blog entry that casually referred to a lunch I’d had in New York City with a college friend of mine. It was the tiny bread crumb that led the national media to my virtual door one morning last month. I woke up to a barrage of online messages from producers of outlets ranging from NBC News to CCTV (the English-language news channel run by Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television), who targeted my e-mail, Twitter, Facebook—even my LinkedIn account. All of them asked if I could speak to them about this old pal.

  • Courtesy Ryan Smith

  • Brandon Bostian

    The death toll was tallied and the victims were identified, but the news well soon ran dry. With no indication of a mechanical failure or a terrorist attack, the media turned its gaze toward the train’s engineer—and my college friend—32-year-old Brandon Bostian. He’d been at the helm when the train mysteriously doubled in speed. He also provided no explanation for it (though he had sustained a concussion). Officials told the media they were going to interview Brandon and proceed with an investigation to discover the cause of the crash, but that would take some time. “This person has gone through a very traumatic event and we want to give him the opportunity to convalesce for a day or so before we interview him,” National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said.

    And so I called an NBC producer who’d left his number and agreed to talk about Brandon. He took notes and passed me on to another producer, who said she wanted to send a camera crew to my apartment to film a segment for the next day’s edition of the Today show. When I noted that I was also a journalist, she remarked, “This should be good for your career, then!” Apparently, being on TV to talk about a friend who’d been involved in the deaths of eight people would raise my profile.

    I’d be lying if I said I’m innocent of this. As a journalist, I’m part of the feast-or-famine news cycle that latches on to people for a good story and then forgets them when the next big story breaks. Is there a more humane way to be part of this business? Maybe, but it’s probably too late for Brandon’s sake.