More than a decade before a distracted nation became transfixed by clumsy efforts to fake the news, a cabal of corporate insiders organized a far more nuanced and insidious persuasion machine in California's capital. Led by one of the state's top political reporters and his uncle, the managing partner of a big wheel lobbying firm, the operation netted the partners more than $7 million during the brief sixteen months the website was running. The deception...