Throughout the history of rap music, a good beef has always been an attention-getter. No, we are not talking about the kind of beef you wrap in a butter-soaked tortilla and consume every morning. We are talking about the beef that has produced such hits as “Ether” and “Takeover” from Nas and Jay-Z, respectively, but has also ended in the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. The most current example is the beef between 50 Cent and Rick Ross.

It seems that local media outlets have resorted to similar feuding in the hope of boosting their status in their own outlets, be they television, print, or radio. One of the first “shots fired” may have been from the El Paso Media Group empire of Keith “I’m selling my personal belongings like my name is O.J. Simpson” Mahar. After City Manager Joyce Wilson received a raise a while back, Sito Negron made the claim that Gustavo Reveles-Acosta of the El Paso Times made an error in his reporting. Reveles-Acosta shot back, saying that the Times piece was accurate and Negron was wrong.

As of late, the Tree has reported at least twice about the perilous state of the El Paso Times, once reporting on its published selling his home and then speculating about layoffs at the newspaper. Not liking it up the ass, the Times’ Roy Ortega then reported that the Mahar empire was in trouble as well, an opportunity Mahar used to all but call out theTimes by name. Not wanting to feel left out and in need of a pat on the head from Mahar, David K. used his own blog to call Ortega’s story wrong.

Not to be upstaged by their online and print counterparts, KTSM took an apparent stab at KVIA during the Super Bowl. KVIA replied by seemingly calling out (don’t let the link fool you) KTSM for replacing an airing of its noon news show with an infomercial.

Experts are speculating that all of this beefing is an attempt to get young people interested in reading and watching the news. As the old people who continue to demand everything on a silver platter and are still allowed to vote die off, the outlets will begin losing their viewers and readers, since young El Pasoans don’t give a shit. Apparently the effort of hiring hotties such as KTSM’s Oralia Ortega and KDBC’s Nichole Ayoub in order to grasp the coveted 18-34 year-old male demographic has been in vain, as none seem to match the hotness of the living legend.

Will the latest attempt at grabbing market share work for El Paso’s media outlets, or will young people continue to ignore them?

-Avocadoan Staff