In an article in Liberation today, Margot a student in Toulouse says with humor "Chirac ... Il est hors sujet" (he's off the point). This is a term some teachers used with a sort of wicked delight when I was at High School here in France "Votre Dissertation est hors sujet" they'd say : "Your essay is off the point" in an attempt to crush the student's moral. It's really amusing reading in a national newspaper, about, Margot, a student (not a queen), talking about the president of France in this way.
Early this morning the first details that nearly all newspapers published was that there weren't as many teachers or transport workers on strike and that less people were demonstrating than on the 28th. By this afternoon similar stories with a "there weren't as many people on strike" approach was prominent in most online additions to the day's news. By 3 o'clock there were stories appearing about the fact that universities/students were showing signs of more radical approaches. Then finally after around 4 o'clock the online stories were describing demonstrations with most probably as many people demonstrating as on the 28th. After 5 o'clock Liberation titles "les défilés anti-CPE ont rassemblés au moins autant de monde que la semaine dernière" : "The Anti CPE marches gathered at least as many people as last week"
I don't think I conceive it as any attempt to manipulate opinions but rather the journalists' reserve, making sure the information is correct before publishing. It was however pretty weird to see so many people were marching by compared, to last week and reading that far less people were on strike. I'm guessing this was more to do with the fact that knowing how many teachers are on strike is far easier to follow. On the other hand knowing how many people are going to be marching in the streets, unhappy about losing what their parents and grand parents have fought to obtain, is a lot harder to tell...