Even positive newspaper reports can discredit a story. On Dec. 18, 1903, The Boston Transcript and on Dec. 19 the New York Herlad (below) and on Dec. 20 The Chicago Sunday Tribune (belowthat ) reported Wright had flown "three miles" at Kitty Hawk:

On December 18, 1903, a smaller newspaper, the Virginian Pilot, also reported a three mile flight the previous day by the Wright brothers:

Three miles is exactly double the distance the invited journalist attending Whitehead's first flight reported seeing him having flown. No reporters witnessed the Wrights' claimed flight. The Wrights' own measurements claim the flight was 852 ft.. - a small fraction of a mile. It's unclear how the "Three Miles" headline eventuated.