It is possible but it takes someone famous like John Mcafee or much more popular to setup a pump.
I am also not sure if it is a healthy move as there would inevitably be a dump afterwards.
That spoiled brat think that he is just like John Mcafee that could pump a bitcoin market price in just a matter of hours. I agree that it is possible but the problem is that bitcoin market price could be pump requiring a huge money to do it. Anyway, news could help this by spreading good things about bitcoin and encouraging other people to invest in cryptocurrency.
since bitcoin is not some pump and dump shitcoin, its price will never "pump" and people like Mc Afee are only a tiny part of the ecosystem and their effects are only focused on the shitcoins, mostly the ICOs which he was advertising and getting paid for them and the altcoins that he obviously pumped.
other than that bitcoin is on its own trajectory and whales may manipulate it in short term but the long term direction and the final mass adoption result can not be change.