The NRA’s Latest Ad Furiously Attacks The New York Times With A ‘Clenched Fist’ And Left People Scratching Their Heads

There is a new brouhaha over a new NRA ad featuring conservative personality Dana Loesch. It follows another controversial ad that was posted back in April and found more notoriety after the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise. Many took the ad as call for violence against the press and the left, most specifically because of Loesch’s assertion “the only way we save our country and our freedom, is to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth.” The organization defended that ad, but now courted more controversy thanks to a second ad carrying the same tone. Also even though the tag “clenched fist” is back in the tweets and pointed at the New York Times, Loesch is saying she was misunderstood in another part of the video, with many thinking she is saying “fist” when she in fact she “fisk.” — a slang that means to rebut an argument point by point.

Points to you Scrabble aficionados who already know that word, but it doesn’t stop many from being confused. A different word choice could’ve put some distance between her words and the tagline the NRA is using. Now Twitter is aflutter all over again about the intent of the ad, its vocabulary, and the effect it might have on gun owners disgruntled with liberals.

https://twitter.com/ikebarinholtz/status/893845687250468864

https://twitter.com/zeroinscw/status/893674374674436096

A few thought it was ridiculously over the top, even campy:

Some wanted to reiterate concerns about the ad’s aggressive tone, warning that it may insight violence.

https://twitter.com/RevTMcK/status/893698617852272641

The controversy has led to what is probably the greatest number of people to ever look up the definition of the word “fisk” since the term was conceived.

And at least one viewer said the ad had the opposite effect the NRA intended.

https://twitter.com/LanceWhitney6/status/893833284676796417

The irony is that now everyone is fisking Loesch and the ad in a way they might not have if she had left well enough alone and stuck with the original wording that, if violent, was at least honest.