Now that Michael P. Skarzynski has resigned as president and chief executive officer of Arbitron, flags are being raised about the PPM. Apparently, the Skarzynski’s poor conduct issue was lying to the House Oversight Committee at a Dec. 2, 2009, hearing. He lied about personally participating in a PPM training visit in November 2009.

Oops.

The PPM has already come under fire from minority broadcast groups who question the system’s accuracy. The PPM was recently denied accreditation in 20 markets by the Media Ratings Council. Now, Sen. Robert Menendez (NJ) is calling for a full investigation of the ratings measurement system.

Not good times for Arbitron.

It’s no secret that the paper diary system is not perfect. Stations have played the weaknesses (which they should do) to their advantage. The PPM has the potential to level the playing field in ratings accuracy if it can ever get off the ground.