Shorting the S&P500 in the hopes that a MarketWatch article will have a significant effect on the price despite the $14T market cap and high liquidity would be an absurdly risky and low-return way to make money. That's why people who run these sorts of scams focus on penny stocks with low market caps, relatively unsophisticated investors, and low liquidity.

Not that I disagree that the article is meaningless data mining--I just think stupidity is a better explanation than conspiracy.

Edit: I should have used the DJIA instead of the S&P500, since that's what's referenced in the article, but the same points hold.