The application that I use the editor in takes the data from the editor and saves it to a database then posts it back to the editor after the save/refresh.  When the screen repaints, the special characters are not visible in "normal" mode.  Even when I pull the data straight from the database (direct pull not a post back), the special characters are not visible in "normal" view.  They are visible in a typical browser window.

Visually checking the html shows the special character codes.  Is that what you mean by check the html code?