The Parents Television Council was not pleased with our update on the decency group's financial decline and internal troubles. "Dear @ MatthewLasar - pretty lousy piece you wrote about the PTC," the organization's public relations guy Dan Isett tweeted me.

Sorry, but it summarized a New York Times exposé that was, well, kind of worrisome.

But apparently not disturbing enough for ex-PTC Vice President Patrick Salazar, whom the Times interviewed at length. The PTC says the group fired Salazar, who then tried to extort money from the outfit. He says he resigned and just asked for a severance. In any event, on Tuesday night Salazar sent us an e-mail expanding on the allegations that he made to the newspaper.

While at the Council, "I witnessed a number of grotesque fundraising practices that I felt were misleading to the public and in contrast with the PTC's stated mission," Salazar's statement insists.

"PTC education programs with the stated intent of serving the public were actually hollow fundraising schemes. The organization relied on inflated membership numbers to mislead donors, regulators and legislators all in an effort to increase the PTC's the relevance and cash flow."

The PTC regularly asked for money when mailing out petitions to the Federal Communications Commission, Congress, or TV executives, Salazar says. But, "When responses came in, nearly two hundred thousand of these petitions were opened, checked for donations, and, after months of sitting in a warehouse in Ohio, were thrown in the trash. This disdain for its 'members' disgusted me, and I warned [PTC President Tim Winter] of its implications immediately after learning of the practice."

As for the decency group's claim of having 1.3 million members, Salazar calls it "false by any standard." His analysis of the outfit's "member" database in late 2009 indicated that over half of these people had only a single correspondence with the PTC, and the overwhelming majority have "never contributed a dime."

No worries, dude

In The New York Times article PTC insisted that other nonprofits count their members in similar ways.

"I have served as a senior manager, board member, or consultant for nonprofit and members associations for more than 20 years," Salazar pushes back. "I am not aware of any groups that manage membership in this manner, and I challenge the PTC to identify such groups."

When Salazar says he brought his concerns to Tim Winter, he was "rebuffed on all occasions, at one point being told, 'Dude, It's under control'."

"After witnessing these ethical violations I became convinced that integrity of the PTC and the resources it offered to the public was compromised beyond repair," his statement concludes.

We forwarded this letter to the PTC, asking for a response. Here's what we got:

"On October 25, the New York Times published an article about the Parents Television Council. As the Times article reported, a former PTC employee demanded cash in exchange for his silence. The PTC told the NY Times back in May that his allegations are littered with patently false statements and misrepresentations of the truth, and his most recent statement continues that pattern. The PTC considers this distraction to be closed, and it will continue to focus on its mission."