  We study the XMM-Newton spectra of a sample of 32 soft X-ray selected QSOs.
  Our goal is to check, using the spectra of moderate redshift (z~1.5), faint
  (f (0.2-8 keV) > 5x10^-15 cgs) broad-line QSOs, previous claims for either
significant intrinsic absorption or spectral hardening at high energies.
  We derive hardness ratios for all sources and furthermore we perform spectral
fits for the 11 brighter sources. The majority of sources have steep spectra
  (photon index >1.9). We find a few QSOs with large amounts of intrinsic
absorption, as high as N_H~10^23 cm-2. We find no strong evidence for spectral
hardening above 2 keV. The coadded QSO spectrum is well described by a single
power-law with photon index of ~1.9, demonstrating that, on average, any
effects of absorption are not important. This suggests that the discrepancy
between the X-ray background and the (soft X-ray selected) QSO spectrum holds
well at the faint fluxes probed here.
