I don’t see a conspiracy here, it’s more like a bit of frustration of some parts of the press not doing their jobs. Fact checking police numbers is one of them.

Also: Speaking about “then thousands” at a protest gives another vibe than speaking about “hundred thousands” or “a quarter of a million” which is closer to the truth and makes a democratic protest seem smaller than it is.

I am fascinated by news agencies copying the official numbers from the police. I was there. We were stuck most of the time because even the large areas near the Reichstag were overcrowded. From what I can say I guess it was way closer to that 250k of people the organizers were talking about.