Kudos, Charlie. I think the best thing you did was to appear sane and friendly. Most of us would have been nervous in that situation.
when an interviewer asks you what is backing Bitcoin say "it is backed by hundreds of thousands of ppl who have made a conscious decision to not let their govt's devalue their money every time a bank demands a bailout".
when someone like David Birch says that fiat money is backed by the govt's power to tax don't just let that go w/o a response. say "oh that's just great...you mean our gov't can not only devalue our money by printing it for their own purposes but also back that same money by taking even more of it away from us via taxes?".
Know your audience. Know yourself. Cypherdoc is very knowledgeable, and correct, and I have a tendency to approach political, bitcoin, and economics discussions in this way too, but this was a fairly light segment. There wasn't much time to get deep or super-passionate on any point without risking alienating the thousands of viewers who were probably hearing about bitcoin for the very first time.
Similarly, there's no point in raising the ire of David Birch when he's actually doing service for bitcoin in this interview. He gave it some credibility. We don't need to convince him. We don't need to convince anyone. We just need to present the facts. Bitcoin is building up a track record. It's not yet for everyone. It's rough around the edges. Right now it's only useful for those who can understand it. If you don't understand it, it's hard to reason about. Right now most people don't even know there's a fundamental problem with fiat money. Hell, they don't even know what fiat means. They've lived their whole lives with this thing, and they've never had to think hard about it's fundamental nature. Well that's all going to change - but we don't need to cram it down their throats. Soon enough governments will be busy cramming fiat down their throats. Let's be the saviors - not the wackos.
If you're having a conversation with one or two people, you have a chance to gauge their interest, intelligence, and disposition. You can tailor your arguments and anecdotes to suit their moods. If your on TV, it's a whole different ballgame. I'm not saying it can't be done. It's just not for everyone.
As more people hear, more will be interested. We'll grow the ranks, and find not only valuable ambassadors, but resonant phrases. We might be fond of using terms like "decentralized ledger" (I certainly am), or "cryptocurrency", but in time we'll learn that lay people can't actually hear those terms. Someone will hit on a new, dumbed-down, term that just makes sense to most people. They'll hit on a concept that's currently being presented too logically or in too much detail - and crystalize it for millions.
Bitcoin needs time to work its way into our culture. People need to hear the sad stories about dollars and drachmas, and the good stories about bitcoins and "lucky schmucks". There will be much gloom in the medium term. Bitcoin will be one of the bright points. At some point even the most stalwart critics will relent and purchase bitcoin - the evidence will be just too overwhelming. Herd mentality will kick in.
In the mean time, let's pick our fights.
Great job, Charlie.