AFTER OXYCONTIN SERIES, A DELAYED REACTION

The Orlando Sentinel portrayed David Rokisky as a happy newlywed --
"Life was perfect," he said -- whose life was ruined when he started
taking the painkiller OxyContin.

Unfortunately for the Florida paper, Rokisky's life had not been so
perfect. He had pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy in a cocaine case
four years earlier. Why the Sentinel didn't know that -- and why the
paper waited three months to tell its readers after being notified --
is now the focus of two internal investigations.

"We made a couple of mistakes," says Managing Editor Elaine Kramer.
"We still don't know exactly what happened. We're looking into it
pretty actively and aggressively."

"The reporting should have been more thorough," adds Public Editor
Manning Pynn.

Rokisky's mother-in-law, Vivian Satz, says she told reporter Doris
Bloodsworth on Oct. 20 -- the second day of the five-part series on
OxyContin -- there was a huge gap in her work, and followed up with an
e-mail. "I told her this was a nice little fantasy story," Satz says.
"I told her about David's probation. . . . Doris promised me
repeatedly they'd be coming forth with a correction." But the paper
did not publish a follow-up story on Rokisky's background until Feb.
1.

News organizations often look for someone to humanize a complicated
story. The 36-year-old former police officer with a "bodybuilder's
physique," repeatedly featured in sidebars and pictures, was tapped
for the role of an "accidental addict" who went through a detox
program. But the failure to fully check out such a person can be
journalistically disastrous. Rokisky, who could not be reached, has
also had domestic-violence disputes with his wife, according to police
records.

Timothy Bannon, a spokesman for Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin,
says the company immediately complained to the Sentinel about the
series, which prompted House hearings last week. "Clearly, it would
appear the newspaper did not do an accurate job of researching the
story, and compounded that by concealing information that was known to
them for some period of time," he says.

Bannon says a quick database search found articles in the Albuquerque
Journal from 2000 that reported Rokisky's conviction. "This was all
readily available, one mouse click away," he says.

But it was not until after a Jan. 29 Journal article reported on the
flaws in the Sentinel series that the Florida paper ran its first
story-length correction. The paper would not allow Bloodsworth to
comment on her nine-month investigation.

Rokisky was no typical patient in another respect as well. Rick
Sponaugle, the physician who treated Rokisky and was featured in a
sidebar, says he had "no reason" to tell the Sentinel that he provided
the $10,000 treatment for free.

"We gave him financial assistance so he would share his story" with
journalists on a subject most people wouldn't discuss, Sponaugle says.

Pynn, the public editor, initially praised the series for its
"meticulous reporting." Now he's in charge of one of the
investigations, reporting to the publisher; the other will be
conducted by Sentinel reporters. "It's not an ideal circumstance to
have an organization investigate itself," he says, but that is part of
his job.

Kramer says Rokisky's checkered background does not undermine the
larger findings on problems with OxyContin, although Purdue Pharma
strongly disagrees. She could not explain why the Sentinel did not
report Rokisky's background for weeks, either after being tipped off
by his mother-in-law or after receiving a Dec. 15 letter from Purdue
Pharma. Kramer blames internal communications problems.

"I can sure understand why the public would react as they probably
are, saying 'Why didn't you report this sooner?' "