A new blog is taking shots at WEHOonline in a post accusing owner Larry Block and columnist John Duran of “running negative articles and opinion pieces” about the mayor and other councilmembers.
The blog has no “About” section and displays no bylines or any other contact information. It has assumed the name @wehoville on Instagram, which was formerly used by this publication. It is likely the latest incarnation of a years-long vendetta pursued by WEHOville’s former owner, Hank “Henry” Scott. Despite not living in West Hollywood for years, Scott has spent his time attacking and disparaging this site and embarking on illegal stunts like removing access to our social media accounts and posting under our name.
Scott lashed out last October on the pages of another blog, echoing the hollow cries of “racism” and “misogyny” that so many have used as excuses for their own poor judgment and foolishness, a topic we will continue to cover aggressively. Scott even went as far as attacking our contributors and commenters by name.
It seems even discarding the WEHOville brand has not quelled Scott’s hunger for conflict. We wish him a happy new year full of things to keep him busy and hope he gets the help he very dearly needs.
Update: September 28th 2022
Henry Scott, who founded WEHOville in 2012 and sold it in 2020 is back like the plague.
In a series of text messages to editor Brandon Garcia over the past few days Scott wrote:
“he’s (Larry) talking shit about you again, smile, says you don’t deserve what he pays you. what an asshole.” Garcia did not reply.
At 4:50 am this morning Garcia received another text from Scott: “I hear Larry is looking for an editor? did you quit?” Garcia responded”. Thanks for your interest Former Staff but there are no positions available at this time. Garcia’s response sent Scott into a tizzy….
Brandon later shared the text with me, and I wrote to Scott about his mental illness, “You are the bitter, washed up sick man with 2 years behind you and nothing to be thankful for.” “So from the dumbest guy in the room, (me) to the smartest guy in the room (you) stop making a fool of yourself.”
This was not the first time Henry Scott went after the staff of WEHOville. In April 2021, shortly after the purchase of WEHOville from KF Media, Tony Castro became the new WEHOville editor. Henry Scott took to social media to attack Tony and his family over an arrest some twenty years prior. The pressure on Castro and his family was too much. Tony Castro’s kids said, “dad, you don’t need these headaches” Tony resigned and Block was forced to start over. Brandon Garcia became the new editor and has been with the company since April 2021.
Henry Scott then sent an email chain to WEHOville advertisers and residents and city hall officials. The last two paragraphs are below.
“Im sharing this with you because you are either one of the West Hollywood residents who I used to admire (and some of you I considered a friend) or are involved in a business in West Hollywood who continues to engage with this man–writing for him, attending his events, posting comments on his website, advertising with him, investing in his business.
Clearly you aren’t the person I thought you were. Engaging with someone like this– and publish so many biased and allow the posting of obscene comments (“Lindsey Whore needs a Bath” by Ken Howard) which was posted on a WEHOville facebook page. WEHOville has two facebook pages after Scott stole the social media accounts and a new one was created. One of those accounts is not often monitored. Scott goes on to say ‘this says alot about you. And it doesn’t look good. This is a good bye to our friendship.
Henry (Hank) Scott
—Do you think he will finally say goodbye? Would you hire this guy?
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Below article: Henry Scott continues to parade as WEHOville
Update: Scott turned over the social media accounts two weeks after this article posted. Since this time he now has created a twitter account called wehovile- as of May 2022 he continues to interfere with the business operations of WEHOville.
UPDATE: Aug. 15
UPDATE: Former publisher has hijacked WEHOville Facebook page
WEHOville’s editorial team was cut off from the official WEHOville Facebook page after former publisher Henry “Hank” Scott admittedly used his backdoor access to alter settings and remove page managers. This follows a months-long attempt to disrupt WEHOville’s content output and harm its reputation. Scott continues to hold the WEHOville Facebook page and Instagram page as of publication time.
Former publisher has been trying to sabotage WEHOville
Boystown Media Inc, the owner of WEHOville, has issued a cease and desist demand letter to Henry Scott.
WEHOville was founded by Henry “Hank” Scott in 2011. Mr. Scott sold the publication to KF Media at the end of October 2020. Boystown Media purchased the asset of WEHOville from KF Media in April of 2021.
Henry Scott continues to maintain control over the WEHOville Facebook page as its Business Manager. WEHOville is still able to post at the behest of Mr. Scott but he retains control despite having sold the property and no longer having rights over the domain. Since the purchase of WEHOville by Boystown Media, Mr. Scott has interfered in the business operations on multiple occasions.
Boystown Media has retained local attorney Justin Sobodash to pursue claims against Scott. In the cease and desist demand letter, delivered electronically on June 28th 2021, Sobodash wrote: “In breach of contractual obligations, You have fraudulently represented to Facebook and Instagram that the operating entity of WEHOville’s social media pages is the cancelled entity WHMC LLC. You have used Your effective control of the WEHOville Facebook page to engage in a campaign of defamatory, tortious, and unlawful posts which have seriously wounded the advertising revenues of WEHOville.com.”
Scott has falsely represented himself as the “WEHOville public editor,” and has used the WEHOville Facebook page to disrupt the business and operations of WEHOville.
In another instance, Scott posted an inflammatory video on the WEHOville Facebook page and claimed it was posted by the “current administrator.” The metadata shows Scott posted the video himself. He then threatened to remove all access to the facebook page if the post was not removed.
On numerous other occasions Scott has posted under the WEHOville name on its Facebook page and then shared to the West Hollywood group board on Facebook. Inquiries to Facebook have been returned with the reply that “Facebook does not get involved in third party disputes.”
Below Henry Scott posted a denial that he posted a video on unisex bathrooms that was offensive to some in the trans-community. Henry told Lisa Belsanti, Communication Director of the City of West Hollywood that Block posted the video but the proof is in the meta-data.
WHMC, West Hollywood Media Corp, was owned by Henry Scott and Doug Stichler. Scott owned 75% and Stichler 25%. Upon the sale of WEHOville to KF Media, Mr. Scott left town and his partner received nothing of his share of the sale.
In addition Scott left behind a number of issues confronting the new management. Among them are unpaid vendors that include the California News Publishers Association. Despite the new entity, Boystown Media founding in 2021, unpaid invoices in 2019 from WHMC, and Henry Scott preclude WEHOville from participating in the California News Publishers Association until resolved. Block is negotiating the past due debts.
Block describes the situation in simple terms: “It is like a guy who sells his car and keeps a key, the car gets re-sold and the original owner thinks he has a right to drive the car or tell the new owner where to go.” “I’ve offered Henry money on top of what we paid KF Media but he does not reply at all.
‘We never had a fight or argument or words, I wanted him to work with us and he sent a contract that was lopsided. So, I asked James if we should sign it and James replied ‘I don’t want a father figure’ and a few days later never heard from any one of them again. We had to pick up the pieces and move forward. The door has always been open to James.”
Service via FedEx at Scott’s New York apartment at xx Delancey Street, Unit xxx was returned as ‘no longer at this address’. Scott has not replied to the Electronic Documents served and appears to have moved again or is hiding or from service.
Scott is currently acting as a consultant under the company name Media Maven LLC. — but, “Can you imagine hiring a consultant like Henry Scott who keeps a key to the work after he sold it and tries to destroy it?”. Block goes on to say, ‘ I can tell you one thing for sure, he didn’t try to help or guide us”.
Boystown Media/WEHOville will face a number of choices going forward. They can continue to pursue Scott for damages, along with punitive damages or start a new Facebook and Instagram page and start from the beginning. WEHOville Facebook page is followed by just shy of 9,000 users.
In the above post Scott attacks Tony Castro, who had just started working at WEHOville as an editor disavowing Tony’s character for some time spent in prison over 20 years ago on a white collar issue. Scott also attacked Anthony Vulin for his contribution to WEHOville and former Council member John Duran for his ability to speak in WEHOville. While Scott talks about ‘ethics’ in his attacks on Duran, Castro and Vulin, Mr. Scott is doing so without regard for his own unethical behavior. Scott has had previous brushes with the law including his own short time in jail. In his op-ed written on February 17, 2015 titled “Handcuffed and Locked Up” Scott’s belligerence is evident and he was placed in jail for “resisting arrest.”
Publishers Note: California law requires full disclosure of all known issues and defects prior to a transfer of real property interests. In the next few weeks Boystown Media/WEHOville will be expanding its ownership base and board of directors.
Scott shows no dignity and lost whatever credibility he had. I used to respect him but see his motives more clearly today. Mental illness seems to be on the rise nationwide and can growing in wehoj
I would see Hank parading through sex clubs like SLAMMER sporting his BIOHAZARD arm tattoo. This indicates he is HIV+ (as am I). But I’m not tasteless about it. I find tattoos tasteless and THAT one is the worst of all. I didn’t seroconvert for years. He clearly did because he needed piles of plastic surgery to hide the fact that he has no body fat (lipoatrophy) and his face looks like a skull under all the fillers and botox. You only get that long term look from getting AIDS infected the minute you could. Why do I get the… Read more »
I feel sorry for Henry Scott. Why does he care after he sold it? Wehoville is better now than when he had it. He thought he was a journalist but had none of the participation and human interest stores or ideas you have put forward. I would especially like to thank you for your coverage of the sheriff interviews and allowing the public to participate.
Yet another joke of an “article” … Come on, Larry. Grow up. Get therapy. Don’t vent on the news website you bought.
Giving him the attention he wants. You are as dumb as he is
Untreated mental illness is a cancer. I wish our society took it as seriously because it can really harm both the one suffering from it and, as witnessed here, those around them. I hope Hank gets the help his behavior is crying out for (even if he doesn’t see it) so we don’t need to hear about this moving forward.
This is very sad.The man,Hank Scott,has been away from Wehoville and the city of West Hollywood for two years.He lives in another city and he is still going nuts over Wehoville.When is he going to get over it and leave the new staff of Wehoville alone to do their thing? I hope he gets help for his obsession.
I LOVE how Wehoville is now run, and Brandon Garcia is a superb editor!
Complaining about real Free Speech sends me straight to a FIVE ALARM!
If you don’t like it, don’t read it.
If you think little plays on Whorvath’s name is upsetting, you need to listen to what victims of crime have to say about her and her bloated grass grazer Shyne.
Team LARRY AND BRANDON! Wehoville ’22 Leavin’ the past where it belongs…Memoryville.
I recall when Scott sold this publication and do not understand how he could be doing those posts. It looks like he has many regrets and is trying to make sure Larry does not succeed.
Hank has most likely ruined it for himself but I’m curious if there was a clause that prevented him from starting up another WEHO website within a certain period of time.
Boystown Media purchased the asset from KF Media and had no direct agreement with Scott. KF Media’s contract with WHMC media may have had such a clause but not aware of this. Scott was also given a chance to take back WEHOville but declined.
This cat fight between these two queens reminds me of the Alexis/Crystal fights from Dynasty!
Except the Alexis/Crystal fights were entertaining.
“Hank” seems to be just another version of Ryan Gierach