"Parks and Rec" Undermines Pay for Play, Says SEC

Image © NBC - Universal

The US Securities and Exchanges Commission recently charged NBC-Universal and Amy Poehler with a $20M penalty, citing that the popular comedy program "Parks and Recreation" has propagated the idea that a government can accomplish things through hard work and authenticity.

The suit specifically takes issue with the show's propagation of the idea that law change and elections can happen outside the current, well-established methods of paying millions of dollars to indoctrinate critical opinions and viewpoints into the people. The fear is that this could destroy lobbying and the other complex systems through which governmental action normally takes place.

The SEC made it quite clear that they weren't exactly condoning unfair manipulation of the electoral system. Quite to the contrary, the $20,000,000 is meant to help cover the losses the SEC expects to incur if politicians begin seeing success through other than corrupt means. Without politicians and lobbyists executing corrupt practices, the number of Pay for Play violations each year charged for such practices would decrease significantly, as would the number of violation penalties the SEC can charge.

SEC regulations typically require politicians and lobbyists to play a complex game of cheating and bribing, with the belief that as long as they play within the rules, no one gets caught. Authenticity would destroy this carefully designed system. If political groups no longer play along, the SEC's specially designed accountability may no longer be necessary. 

"At the end of the day, we're talking about people's jobs," said Alexandra Wary, a PR representative at the SEC. "A bureaucracy this dense takes a lot of people to keep running. You try and change things, you'll put hundreds of thousands out on the street without work. NBC, apparently, doesn’t seem to care about those people."

NBC and Poehler have yet to comment.