They read the report and read between the lines. They also understood that the WC members all thought the first shot struck JFK.
Now you're just making sxxt up. There is no need to read between the lines. The WC said what they meant and they meant what they said. The could not determine which of Oswald's three shots were the missed shot. They gave pros and cons for each scenario without showing favoritism to any. They adopted the FBI approach which was that if they could not determine something conclusively, they would not speculate on probabilities.
The CTs created the myth that the WC favored a second shot miss because that was the easiest one to attack. It was the one that made Oswald's shooting feat the most difficult. Josiah Thompson may have been largely responsible for creating the myth with his book title Six Seconds in Dallas. That was probably largely responsible for cementing the myth in the minds of the public that Oswald fired 3 shots in under 6 seconds. The CTs jumped on board by pointing out how improbable it would be for Oswald to score 2 hits with 3 shots in under 6 seconds which it was. Even some LNs got duped into believing the 6 second myth. It's understandable how the average person could have been taken in by the myth but it was inexcusable for a journalist the stature of Walter Cronkite to make such a fundamental mistake. All he would have had to do was read the conclusion paragraph in the chapter on the shots to know the WC never concluded which shot missed, how long Oswald took to fire his 3 shots, or when the first shot was fired. The WC reached no conclusion on those points and said so clearly.
I'm not sure when the Z-film became widely available to the public but I'm guessing it coincided with the internet becoming widely available to the public, some time in the late 1980s. The film had aired on TV several times but unless people recorded the program, they wouldn't have had the capability of reviewing it over and over again. Once the internet made multiple viewings possible as well as enhancements to the film, people started to figure out just what happened. It wasn't long after that a consensus started to build among the LNs that it was the first shot that missed. With millions of eyeballs able to look at the film over and over, in slow motion, freeze frame, and enlargements that people began to pick up on clues the WC had missed. They were able to see the bulge in JBC's jacket at Z224. They could see that JFK's arms did not start to be raised until one frame after he reappeared from behind the sign. They could see JBC's earlier reaction when he began to turn to his right in reaction to the first shot miss. While LNs might quibble about exactly when the first and second shots were fired, most LNs now believe the scenario was a first shot miss, the single bullet on the second shot, and the fatal third shot to the head. When you accept that, all the pieces fall neatly together. When you reject that, nothing fits together and one is forced to make ridiculous arguments to try to make their pet theory seem plausible. Unfortunately for them, that can't be done.
