This is something that those against SOPA and other measures are going to have to get better at. He knows he's lying (or "framing"), he's had years of practice at it. Alexis and others speaking for the technology sector don't. In general they tend to be somewhat humble, confident, and mostly honest people. The success they've had in their lives has been built on the work of countless others and there is a certain amount of deference and pragmatism even in our brightest and accomplished spokespeople.

This needs to change. There is an art to hyperbole, and as much as it makes us all cringe, we need to start engaging in it and framing the argument in a way that will get the visceral juices flowing a bit. "This bill will cause Facebook to delete your account and any of your friends if you post a video", "This bill will force youtube to delete all the videos you took at your childs birthday party", etc. You lose the argument when you accept a compromise when starting from the position you want to finish in. You have to pull back much further, like SOPA proponents are doing, and hope that the middle ground falls further in your interest than others.

Unfortunately fifteen minute segments in which the opponent is given 75% of the talking time does not provide enough opportunity to create a strong defense. It was clear that any attempt to highlight the inaccuracy of Mr. Cotton's statements would have been met with interruption. Either that or you fall into a 'yes it does', 'no it doesn't' debate.

I think the only successful response to "shutting down illegal foreign websites stealing american content" is to point to industry experts and other various authorities that claim SOPA goes beyond that goal. Hayes attempted to do this at one point, but was quickly contradicted by Cotton. At that point Alexis needed to reaffirm that Hayes was correct and hammer home the idea that the legislation is far from clear.