Blue Mass Group

Howie Carr’s column today, titled “Kennedys’ profit near $1m at nonprofit”, goes after Joe Kennedy Jr.’s salary from non-profit Citizen’s Energy Corp. The thing is, Kennedy made the vast majority of his money from for-profit affiliated organizations. Howie even acknowledges this in his column.

Now, much of that Kennedy swag came from Citizens Energy’s profit-making arms, but still, it does have to file as a nonprofit.

This comment demonstrates one thing: complete intellectual dishonesty. Carr acknowledges that most of the money came from a for-profit yet spends the entire column going after Kennedy and his wife for taking money from a non-profit. It’s just not true – they’re not hauling in a million bucks from the non-profit. Carr knows this and should never have given his column a headline implying that.

Joe Kennedy’s compensation breakdown per 2010 Form PC – Click to enlarge

The 2010 Form PC - available at the Attorney General’s website and excerpted above – shows the breakdown of Kennedy’s compensation. He makes $74,930 in salary and $8,265 in benefits at the non-profit Citizens Energy Corp. Why didn’t Howie report that? Because it’s not juicy enough. He had to report the whole number – including the $250,209 salary, $350,000 bonus, and $24,794 in benefits that Kennedy makes at a FOR-PROFIT affiliated company called Citizens Enterprises Corp.

So Howie Carr should fix his article to reflect the truth and Sean Bielat should probably stop retweeting that Kennedy is “a disgrace”… Especially given that Bielat paid himself out of campaign funds and Carr would be making the same amount as Kennedy this year under his failed contract with WTKK. Like Kennedy, Carr would also be making his money from a FOR PROFIT corporation.

To sum it up Carr is loose with the truth and Bielat is banking on running against the name Kennedy, not the man. No surprises here.