(NewsNation) — Last night on the show, I highlighted the vitriol with which the partisan media has been attacking this network — NewsNation.

Particularly following the announcement of the hiring of Chris Cuomo, both left and right wing outlets have taken aim at us over the past 48 hours, trying to minimize us as a small new kid on the block.

Regardless of what you think about Chris Cuomo, they want to crush us. They want to crush me to ensure that our message, my message, of political moderation and unity doesn’t interrupt their highly profitable messages of extremism and division.

Sure enough, after my commentary aired last night, the attacks ratcheted up even more and now, some are not just taking cheap pot shots at us over ratings but going a step further into outright dishonesty.

For example, last night Fox News host Greg Gutfeld joined the parade of politicized media going after the network and said he didn’t know NewsNation existed.

I give Greg credit. He’s funny, and he ended up devoting an entire seven-minute segment to this network, which he claims is an irrelevant nonentity.

Look, the ratings talks are fair game. Ratings are important.

I love the direction we’re going in. But the fact is that today, while we’re getting closer to the big three, we’re not there yet. It takes time to build something as ambitious as what we’re trying to do here, and we are just starting.

I do note the people who are trying NewsNation are liking it. They’re coming back for more. And is it disruptive to the longtime cable news business and creating outrage from one side or another? We’re going to get heat from the old guard.

I didn’t know we were threatening enough that they had to lie when trying to minimize us. Dishonesty is why the public is losing faith in cable news, and we saw it on display last night.

Dean Cain, one of the Gutfeld panelists, got in on the bash NewsNation party. He told the audience with glee that he had never heard of us.

“I’d never heard about it until this right here. And I’m probably not going to ever hear about it again,” Cain said.

Maybe you will hear about it again after tonight, Dean. You see, I found it a little odd, I couldn’t figure out why. I thought I’m certain I know him, somewhere familiar, somewhere closer to home. That’s right, Dean Cain appeared on NewsNation.

I thought he’d never heard of us. But it’s not just that. He knows exactly what our network is about.

“Listen, if we don’t agree on something, let’s talk about it. Let’s find middle ground. There’s not enough of that these days, talk to each other. So I want those conversations to take place. Because I believe that people being so entrenched in their sides and not banging heads and having conversations that make people uncomfortable, but maybe you learn something. I think that’s part of the reason that we are so fractured at the moment as a country,” Cain said while appearing on NewsNation’s “Banfield.”

How about that? Dean Cain, who I’m told pitched himself to be on the network back in 2021, spelled out the very mission of this channel. Yet, last night when the pylon party started on Fox, he was front and center.

It’s just too good. But look, this sort of dishonesty happens on both sides of the political aisle. In fact, this week, the nonpartisan watchdog group NewsGuard, which rates the credibility of news websites, downgraded both Fox News and MSNBC’s websites to the point where both are now considered by NewsGuard to be “untrustworthy.” The Fox News website now earns a score of 57 out of 100 on the NewsGuard scale. It gave the Fox website a failing grade in the categories of presenting information responsibly, regularly correcting or clarifying errors, and handling the difference between news and opinion responsibly.

NBC News, who in an article recently mocked NewsNation as a “fledgling network”? Well, guess what? NewsGuard flunked MSNBC’s website. They got an even worse grade — 52 out of 100 from NewsGuard.

As for NewsNation, NewsGuard gave us 100 out of 100.

Look, that’s what matters to me. Bringing you the news with fairness, with honesty and integrity.

I’m enjoying the slings and arrows from the politicized media. In fact, I’m galvanized by them.

Let Superman and others like him keep trying to bring us down with dishonest smears. Here on this show, we’ll keep fighting for truth, justice and the American way.

Editor’s note: After this segment aired Thursday, Cain tweeted: “I have ZERO recollection of NewsNation. I knew @TVAshleigh and respected her. I did NOT “pitch myself” to your Network. It was pitched to me to work with Ashleigh on a new show with differing opinions so I did an interview or 2 with her almost 16 months ago.”