It appears that the decency group that targets dirty tweeters, naughty Android apps, and anything else that gets between its Victorian cross hairs is having a rough patch. The New York Times reports that the Parents Television Council's salad days are over. The recession has caught up with the PTC, as have internal troubles and the fact that things just aren't going the Southern California nonprofit's way in the federal courts.

Among The Times findings:

Big staff cuts. The economic downturn has had a serious impact on the PTC, as parents realize that not having a job is much worse for your kids than letting them watch Family Guy. The cost of all those decency watchdog reports the group puts out ran into a huge drop in donations. In 2009 PTC revenue declined by over 25 percent. In response the nonprofit has scaled down its staff by almost 40 percent.

FCC petitions not sent? According to The Times, the Council has still been faithfully sending out those standard letters urging couch potatoes to complain about a TV program, plus donate some scratch to the PTC. Sign this complaint, a typical mailing promises, and we'll send it to the Federal Communications Commission or an allegedly naughty broadcaster.

Only one problem—for a while the cash was being collected, but the follow-through letters weren't going out. "Almost 195,000 pieces of donor/member mail was never sent to the intended recipient," disgruntled ex-PTC staffer Patrick Salazar told the newspaper. "Most of these were time-sensitive docs whose value is now shot."

It's just as well, as far as we're concerned. We think most of those prewritten complaints are bogus anyway. But allegedly pocketing direct mail money and not following through on promised actions? That's another matter.

How many members? While PTC top brass put the organization's membership at "more than 1.3 million," that's based on petition signers. Salazar told The Times that 12,000 people answer the Council's yearly fundraising pitches, "at most."

The First Amendment. The United States Constitution has a habit of eventually getting in the way of groups like the PTC. Three months ago the Third Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the FCC's controversial "fleeting expletives" policy, agreeing with broadcasters that it promoted "wide self-censorship of valuable material which should be completely protected under the First Amendment."

The Commission has appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, but the verdict and the recession appear to have taken some serious wind out of the PTC's sails. This month the Council put out a protest alert about Disney teenage innocence queen Miley Cyrus's new video, which shows her lounging around in her underwear.

"While we understand the desire for a teenaged performer like Miley Cyrus to break free of the type-cast roles that made her a star, it is unfortunate that she would participate in such a sexualized video like this one," the PTC statement declared.

But The Times observed that the commentary, "mild by council standards," hasn't gotten much response. It also didn't mention that Miley's dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, is a member of the PTC's Advisory Board.

Oh well. As the Wicked Witch of the West once said to Dorothy, these matters must be handled delicately.

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