Is the Tea Party magazine for real?

Move over, lamestream media. A publication by, for, and about the Tea Party movement is about to hit the shelves. Or is it, as some suggest, a hoax?

According to The Tea Party Review's grassroots website, the magazine will tell "people what we stand for and what we won't stand for."
(Image credit: teapartyreview.com)

The story: Tired of the way the "lamestream media" treats them, Tea Party activists have decided to launch a publication of their own. The first monthly issue of the Tea Party Review will hit the stands at the Conservative Political Action Conference to be held in Washington this weekend. For $34.95 a year, subscribers can steep themselves in articles on Obamacare repeal and prominent black conservatives, and a comic strip about a Tea Party congressman taking on the "Red Chinese." "People are weary of the distorted vision of the Tea Party movement that we see in most of the media," said Katrina Pierson, the magazine's "national grassroots director."

The reaction: As much as it "sucks," this could actually succeed, says Max Read at Gawker: Even though magazine publishing is hardly a growth industry, "being divorced from any kind of agreed-upon political reality is." Well, "I smell a hoax," says Jeanne Sager at The Stir. Isn't it a little suspicious that the only media people informed about this were liberal bloggers? "Everything about this 'magazine'" seems like borderline parody, including headlines like "How the Top Colleges Turn Kids into Stupid Leftists." Here's a look at the first issue's subtly patriotic front cover:

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