Tom Chorneau

Enterprise Reporting Tom Chorneau

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 was clever and hard to spot, never anything too overt, just enough to push a client's agenda along. It was sweet. No one could ever claim to be a victim and no one could ever argue a crime had been committed. They even had a line into the governor's office, but had to be careful that nothing blew back on an unsuspecting Schwarzenegger.