NEWS PROVIDED BY
Journalist Dexter Duggan
July 19, 2022

PHOENIX, July 19, 2022 /Christian Newswire/ -- A longtime journalist who entered a confidential settlement against a book that defamed him with false claims now asks that prominent media figures finally take responsibility for their role in spreading the falsehoods.
 
Nationally distributed pro-life writer Dexter Duggan said that even though he took the extra step of personally notifying these enablers that the book legally had been deemed defamatory, they made no reply, remaining silent, despite previously having pushed the book to the public.
 
They included the author of Abortion, Religious Freedom, and Catholic Politics, historian James Hitchcock, Ph.D., the London-based international publishing firm Taylor & Francis, and "global Catholic network" EWTN.

Duggan said these key players significantly aided a book besmirching him and should "stop hiding" from the need to correct and apologize.

On March 8, 2022, Christian Newswire had distributed a news release about Duggan's entering the confidential legal settlement in late 2021 against Hitchcock's book peppered with falsehoods.
 
The book inexplicably concocted incidents, misrepresented facts, misattributed the statements of other clearly identified people directly to Duggan, and falsely cast Duggan as a seriously sinful Catholic.
 
Despite Duggan's personal letters to Hitchcock dating back to mid-2017, the Missouri author never even acknowledged, explained or defended any of his errors. After Duggan directly wrote Hitchcock by certified mail in 2022 that his book officially was declared defamatory, Hitchcock remained silent.
 
In addition to the Christian Newswire March release being distributed widely, Duggan forwarded it directly to three editorial workers at publisher Taylor & Francis, including the book's purported editor, Dean Birkenkamp, but none replied.

Catholic EWTN CEO and Chairman of the Board Michael Warsaw made no reply to two personal, certified letters from Duggan in December 2021 and January 2022 saying that the book, which EWTN both promoted and sold, had been deemed defamatory.

Duggan's attempts to present his side through EWTN go back to early 2018, when he wrote eight certified letters to four different people there, but only Warsaw replied, only once, mostly to brush off Duggan. As years passed, Duggan learned that EWTN sent misleading messages to people who complained against this unfair treatment.
 
Besides these media figures, book reviewer Ryan Barilleaux, Ph.D., replied to the notice of the defamation by saying that he stood by his favorable review of Hitchcock's book and didn't think his role was to be "a fact-checker."
 
Barilleaux wrote in the Catholic Social Science Review for 2022 that he views Hitchcock as "a scholar with a distinguished reputation."

SOURCE Journalist Dexter Duggan

CONTACT: Dexter C. Duggan, 602-553-8482, dexterwriter@hotmail.com