Agreement question

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>I also don't think it's a case of notional plurality of
>_press._ Certainly one would never write, "The stories Smith
>tell are shaped..." But one would also never, with other
>collective-ish nouns, write "The stories the team tell are
>shaped..." or "The stories the jury tell are shaped..."
>Even though these could also be regarded as notionally plural,
>_tell_ doesn't work here for me.

RHUD under "press(1)":

<<34. _(often used with a pl. v.)_ a group of news reporters, or of news
reporters and news photographers: _The press are in the outer office,
waiting for a statement._>>

The plural seems surely OK to me (as well as to the RH editors, I guess) if
"the press" is in this sense.

As for "the team": I would (myself) tend to refer to a soccer/football team
in the singular in most contexts, but apparently the plural is more common
(but not universal) with team names, e.g., "Manchester United were formed
in 1878", "Brazil are the most popular team". I was struck by the
prevalence of such usage during the World Cup news coverage recently.

-- Doug Wilson