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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