I don’t think it’s a fake article. The stopping of primaries was discussed at the April meeting in Florida. -Curly
Sources in the article include NBC & Politico.
I do wonder, though, how many people were for Ted Cruz a year ago and opposed to open primaries and how many of them rejected Cruz and closed primaries when Trump came along.
In other words, what looks like some kind of conspiracy now, is something that some (or even many) people here were in favor of a year ago.