This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Richard Nixon had his silent majority; Tim DeChristopher has his vocal minority.
It seems that everywhere I go I hear people say that DeChristopher is a hero for gumming up President George W. Bush's ecologically questionable oil and gas leases with phony bids and then going to prison for it. Having done his time for his heroic lawbreaking, DeChristopher is now doing victory laps on all the media, including being canonized by Doug Fabrizio on KUER's "RadioWest."
So with all the seemingly widespread jubilation and hype, it is more than a little surprising that "Bidder 70," the documentary about DeChristopher's "courageous act of civil disobedience," ran only one week in Salt Lake City, closing May 16.
Apparently, and despite the noise, not all that many people are really all that interested in DeChristopher. Just saying.
Al Douglas
Salt Lake City