The war over "truth" between the New York Times and the National Rifle Association escalated Monday when the nation's leading gun rights group warned the media giant, "We're coming for you."



In a new NRATV video, national spokeswoman Dana Loesch reacted to a Times statement that its "commitment to the truth isn't new" and that's coverage is "deep and rich."

Warned Loesch:

"We are going to 'fisk' the The New York Times and find out just what 'deep and rich' means to this old gray hag, this untrustworthy, dishonest rag that has subsisted on the welfare of mediocrity for one, two, three, more decades. We're going to laser-focus on your so-called 'honest pursuit of truth.' In short, we're coming for you."

The new video was shown to Secrets in advance of Tuesday's national TV debut. It is part of the NRA's "Freedom's Safest Place" campaign.

NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre kicked it off in his own video ripping the media, charging that it had "weaponized the First Amendment" to kill the Second Amendment.



The war with the Times began when the paper ran an ad titled "The Truth." It appeared during the Academy Awards and made several references to Trump administration policies.

The NRA then mocked it in a parody ad.

That led the Times to respond with this statement, "Our commitment to the truth isn't new, it dates back 166 years. And, each and every story mentioned in the NRA's video, from Benghazi to crime in Chicago, was covered in deep and rich detail by Times reporters who in some cases — Libya, for instance — risked their lives to get at the truth."

It even won support from Everytown for Gun Safety, funded by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which said, "After spending more than 30 million dollars to elect President Donald Trump, the extremist leadership of the NRA won't let the lack of a bogeyman in the White House keep them from fear-mongering — and their latest target is the truth and the journalists who uncover it."



The latest Times defense prompted Loesch's commentary in the new NRATV ad.

She said, "We the people have had it. We've had it with your narratives, your propaganda, your fake news. We've had it with your constant protection of your democrat overlords, your refusal to acknowledge any truth that upsets the fragile construct that you believe is real life. And we've had it with your pretentious, tone-deaf assertion that you are in any way truth or fact-based journalism."

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com