Laura Ingraham Gave Clive Davis a Free Pass

I happened to tune into the Laura Ingraham show this afternoon in time to hear her interview, to my surprise, Clive Davis, chief creative officer for Sony Music, and longtime smut peddler, from Janice Joplin to “Ke$ha”. I was surprised that Ingraham, “cultural” Amazonian Warrior that she is, would have someone like Davis on her show; after all, Sony music is responsible for much of the recorded filth that Ingraham riles against. However, I thought, perhaps she will take the opportunity to attack him for peddling the smut that he peddles.

To my surprise, Ingraham, far from calling Davis to task, went out of her way to pay him complements. Apparently Ingraham felt indebted to him for giving the world the music she cherished in bygone days. Never mind that today's hip hop is simply the natural consequence of that bygone day's rock music.

Because he gave us "The Boss", Ingraham ingratiated Davis who deserves nothing but reproach. Davis is the guy that helped herald in the drug culture of the late 60s and 70s, sexualized the image of Bruce Springsteen, and is now profiting insanely from the obscenity and misogyny of hip hop music. Regardless of these facts, Ingraham goes so far as to say “I could spend all day talking to him.” I’m surprised that Ingrham, given the public personage that she has built up, would want to endure this man’s stench for more than the ten minutes it took to interview him.

To give you an idea of how the interview went, here is a synopsis taken from PAXALLES:

Davis said he has a variety of criteria for signing talent. Ingraham compared the talent to the profane and filthy lyrics they sing or say and asked how that fits the picture. He said no one is going to whitewash the performer who is speaking to the people, regardless of the expressions used. Davis said this goes beyond music to theater, film and television. He said that notification is used to inform people, but that a person must live in a dream world to not be aware of what is out there in the culture. He said his music goes the full spectrum and has tried to be at the cutting edge. Ingraham questioned why he would sully his portfolio and Davis replied that Ingraham's point of view isn't shared by most of the public. She responded that there are certain taboos - i.e. Muslims are off limits as far as any sort of disrespect.

Davis said an artist like Ke$ha are global successes despite the obscenity.

That really doesn’t capture the essence of Davis’ position. When asked by Ingraham if the obscenity and misogyny in this music is influencing the culture in a negative way, Davis refused to directly answer the question. He couldn’t directly answer it because not even Davis would seriously contend that the degrading lyrics, often replete with profanity and depictions of abusing women, are positive in any way. Instead, he remarks that Ke$ha’s music, like all hip hop, was “a big hit”, not just nationally, but internationally. Davis’ defense is that people buy it, so that makes it O.K., and, by the way, Ingraham is being over sensitive in her criticism because... well... because people buy it. Majority rules, dude!!

Any dolt can see that the blatant profiteering of Davis justifies any repulsive industry you can imagine, from pornography or human and child trafficking, to the drug trade. As long as there’s a market for it, it’s O.K. If enough people buy it, then how can you criticize it? This kind of self-serving and irresponsible logic is to be expected from a sleaze like Clive Davis. Reason and the example of common decency would have to drill through an insanely thick sedimentary wall of filth with which this man has encrusted himself over the last five decades. I'm afraid he is beyond human attempts at persuasion. We can only pray and fast for his deliverance from those demons and his conversion.

What’s troubling is the hypocrisy of Laura Ingraham, the self-professed warden of "traditional American" culture, who would give Davis a free pass by not going hysterical on him like she should have. If she were to be consistent with the intended purpose of her new book, co-authored by EWTN celebrity, Raymond Arroyo, Of Thee I Zing, we would at least expect to her to say after the interview, “wow, he’s a profiteering old wind bag”, instead of, “wow, I could talk with him all day”.

This gives me the impression that she’s willing to take on the syntax challenged hip hop rappers, who have as much a chance of putting together a coherent thought as they do in going one minute without using the “f-word”, but balks in challenging a man responsible for providing her some of her favorite musical "artists". I would like to give Laura Ingraham (and Raymond Arroyo) the benefit of the doubt and my support, but, let’s face it; they represent the modern, mainstream Catholic half-measure. They would like to speak out against the profanity of the post-Christian society, but are too attached to “The Boss” and other “less-obscene” aspects of the same post-Christian world.

Ingraham's critics are right on this score: how can she criticize hip hop, but at the same time defend the Beach Boys and the Beatles? Is that Weezer we hear in her show's theme music? Many of her critics point out that the only apparent difference is skin color. I can see why they come to this conclusion, but that really isn't it. The problem with Ingraham is the same problem that runs rampant through mainstream, novus ordo Catholicism: a half-measure Catholicism that blinds the mainstream to their logical inconsistencies and renders them incapable of recognizing the simple cause and effect that has led to the degradation of society in the wake of the 20th Century revolutions.

Laura Ingraham (and Raymond Arroyo) proves that it’s hard to speak out against the post-Christian pagan culture when you still can't help liking so much of it. This is the Catholicism of half-measures so popular now in the mainstream that can't see the obvious connection between "The Boss" and hip hop music. May God deliver us from it.