a Dozen Mistakes

Dozen is a word that is occasionally pluralized when it really shouldn't be.

Example:

"A dozen people were involved" means that twelve people were involved.

"Dozens of people were involved" means at least twenty-four people were involved, perhaps more... perhaps many, many more!

"More than a dozen people were involved" means somewhere between twelve and twenty four people were involved. The number could be thirteen, or it could be twenty-three, but normally this statement refers to numbers closer to a dozen.

It is that last statement that the news occasionally screws-up. They might report that "Dozens of people were involved" when actually it should have been reported as "More than a dozen people were involved. They do the same thing with the numerical terms hundred and thousand. The news is extremely guilty of this 'play on numerical words' when trying to make an event appear to be more important than it is... or less important. This is one of the obvious areas we can look at to see if the news-media is being slanted on an issue.