The New York Times on Wednesday took to Twitter to slam an essay by conservative author Dennis Prager accusing the newspaper of religious bias for leaving his new book off its bestseller lists.

Prager wrote "The Rational Bible: Exodus," which he said Wednesday had placed within the top three spots on lists published by The Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, book wholesaler Ingram, and other retailers.

"But it is not even listed on The New York Times best-seller list," Prager said.

"I was told years ago that the Times best-seller list almost never includes overtly religious books," he added. "I believe it but cannot prove it."

But the Times hit back hard, through its official corporate communications account on Twitter:

Hypocrisy alert. @DennisPrager wrote a dishonest essay about our best-sellers lists. He claims, “I have long known it isn’t a best-seller list, and I don’t pay attention to it.” Though he lists ”NYT best-selling author” on his twitter bio and his own site. pic.twitter.com/SAm5zanslx — NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) April 18, 2018

NYT’s best-seller lists are based on a detailed analysis of book sales from a wide range of retailers in locations across the U.S. Each week we provide our readers the best assessment of what books are the most broadly popular at that time. — NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) April 18, 2018

Among the retailers that report to us, very few disclosed sales of Mr. Prager’s book in the past three weeks. pic.twitter.com/xnkkCrc36H — NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) April 18, 2018

His argument has no basis in fact and includes a number of factual inaccuracies. pic.twitter.com/cSTtOIVrD2 — NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) April 18, 2018

Political views held and expressed by authors have no bearing on our rankings. NYT’s nonfiction lists feature books from authors across ideological spectrums. Authors who identify as conservative perform as well as authors who identify as liberal on our lists. — NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) April 18, 2018

One Times correspondent Rukmini Callimachi, who covers the Islamic State and other terrorism issues, noticed the Times' unusual tweetstorm:

I don’t remember ever seeing such a strongly-worded tweet from an official @nytimes account. A sign of the times we live in, where the assault on the independent press is unrelenting. https://t.co/YuUZoouwNH — Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) April 18, 2018

Earlier this month, the Times came under fire for not listing conservative author Jerome Corsi's book, "Killing the Deep State: The Fight to Save President Trump," on its best-seller list.

The newspaper eventually agreed to list the pro-Trump book at No. 15 on its combined print and e-book bestseller list.

"Killing the Deep State" has also climbed to the No. 1 spot on several Amazon categories and was a top 10 best-seller with Barnes & Noble.

"Killing the Deep State" is published by Humanix, a division of Newsmax Media Inc.

When Newsmax reached out to the Times to ask the book was not included, the query was met with a terse "no comment."