Sidebar issue in IE (problem in index.php)

ok this problem is pretty crazy. when this line is in index.php the sidebar doesn’t work in IE.

<div class=”postbg”><?php the_content(‘Read more »’); ?></div>

but if I switch it to this the sidebar works (of course the posts are distorted)

<div class=”postbg”><?php the_content_rss(‘Read more »’); ?></div>

where does <?php the_content… call to? I have a feeling the problem lies in “the_content” but I don’t know where this is. any help would be great. Without coding experience I’m surprised I got this far…