LIBERAL ONLINE GROUP RAISES MILLIONS FROM THREE DONORS

WASHINGTON - An online liberal activist group that is running
television ads criticizing President Bush has raised $3.9 million from
just three donors, including billionaire financier George Soros and
movie producer Steve Bing.

The MoveOn.org Voter Fund has raised at least $4.5 million since
October, including the donations from the three major contributors,
according to a report to the Federal Election Commission this week.

Soros and his business partner, Peter Lewis of Cleveland, donated at
least $1.45 million each, while Bing gave at least $971,426. In the
2001-2002 election cycle, the last in which donors could contribute
unlimited amounts known as soft money to the national party
committees, Bing gave more than $9 million to the Democratic Party.

At least two others gave $100,000 each: businessmen Lewis Cullman of
New York and Richard Foos of Los Angeles.

The donations were listed in a report the California-based MoveOn.org
group filed with the FEC disclosing about $53,000 in spending on an
anti-Bush aired in Washington, D.C., close to the city's Jan. 13
advisory presidential primary.

MoveOn is embroiled in a dispute with CBS and its parent company
Viacom over the network's refusal to air the Bush ad during the Super
Bowl, traditionally the most-watched TV event of the year.

MoveOn on Thursday faulted CBS and Viacom for political favoritism for
rejecting the ad.

The network has said the ad, which uses images of children working at
adult jobs to criticize the federal budget deficit, violates its
advocacy rules. The Super Bowl is traditionally the most-watched TV
event of the year.

But MoveOn claims that CBS will run an ad during the game by the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"It seems to us that CBS simply defers to those it fears or from whom
it wants favors - in this case, the Bush White House," said Eli
Pariser, campaign director for MoveOn.

Dana McClintock, a CBS spokesman, said the White House anti-drug ad
will run, but that it is considered a permitted ad under the network's
"clear and consistent" policy.

"The ads are for stamping out drug abuse. If there's a reasonable,
intellectual argument to be had about why drug abuse is a positive
thing, I would love to know what it is," McClintock said.

In addition to his MoveOn donations, Lewis gave at least $340,000 to
the Marijuana Policy Project Political Fund, according to an FEC
report the Washington, D.C., group filed.

The group spent at least $10,000 to air an ad on cable television in
New Hampshire this week criticizing several Democratic candidates for
failing to promise to end the federal government's policy of arresting
people who use marijuana for medical reasons.

New Hampshire's primary is Tuesday.