I think so, at least to some degree. Someone's certainly bet money on the theory that it works.

When I first saw this tweet, a search for "Dr. Paul Drago" (in an incognito window) consistently returned a glowing blog post first and the domestic violence article second. Hours later, those results are consistently reversed. Could be random, could be that people who saw this tweet are intentionally clicking the news article he's trying to bury.