Most people don't get their news from mainstream media here. It usually happens from rumour or fud from other places. Many sources can have an effect on price.
A simple rumour can influence on the price of BTC so easily? If it were so simple to manipulate the BTC price many traders would take advantage from it.
Many simple rumours have contributed to crashes. Look at all the china is banning bitcoin stuff which was just fud but caused the price to drop. People get a whiff of bad news and panic and it has a domino effect.
These kinds of rumors were carried by the MSM so I think the rumors were really not so much a rumor but were backed by some level of facts. A lot of them also turned out to be somewhat true.
