ProPublica is questioning a source used in a New York Times story today on the Gulf oil spill clean-up, claiming it has ties to the oil industry that the Times did not disclose.

“With crude oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico every day, the conventional wisdom about last month's explosion and spill has been that this is an environmental disaster of unpredictable scale,” ProPublica stated. "The New York Times, in a story published today on Page One, challenged this conventional wisdom by citing several experts."

Among the experts was the nonprofit Gulf of Mexico Foundation, ProPublica noted.

It then quoted the Times story as saying:

“The sky is not falling,” Quenton R. Dokken , a marine biologist and the executive director of the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, a conservation group in Corpus Christi, Tex. “We've certainly stepped in a hole and we're going to have to work ourselves out of it, but it isn't the end of the Gulf of Mexico.”

ProPublica went on to reveal that its research found the Gulf of Mexico Foundation has ties to offshore drilling.

“At least half of the 19 members of the group's board of directors have direct ties to the offshore drilling industry," ProPublica stated. “One of them is currently an executive at Transocean, the company that owns the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded last month, causing millions of gallons of oil to spill into the Gulf of Mexico.”

The Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment.