Dull Blade

"Your choice of a physician is probably the most important decision to make when dealing with all the complicated issues concerning HIV," reads the August ad. "Doctors Sue Reddy, Kenneth Horwitz and Steven Kooshian will help with the many faces of this disease through compassion and the caring expression of knowledge. . . . Our reputations are known nationally, as well as locally, through the hundreds of patients we have helped and saved."

In the current Blade issue, Reddy—who did not return phone calls from the Weekly—claimed Kooshian has had no ties to the practice since September 2004. If true, she oddly ran an additional 11 consecutive months of ads featuring Kooshian's name and bedside manner. Reddy has already laid the foundation for ignorance: her latest ad claims Kooshian's problems only recently surfaced.

If Reddy is backpedaling, LaPointe is standing tall. He attributes the long Kooshian news blackout to his "unwavering responsibility" to make sure he had "all the facts before any information is disseminated to the public." He didn't mention he waited to run a story only after the doctor had allegedly left his local practice, sold his $5.1 million Newport Coast home and moved out of town.

Rather than apologize, LaPointe congratulated himself: "The Blade's goal was, is and will continue to be to provide—to the best of our ability—news, information and resources to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community with accurate, comprehensive and quality articles."

rscottmoxley@ocweekly.com