By: KENNETH MAXWELL

Folha de São Paulo - Op-ed section - page A2   

One of the strangest things about Brazilian journalism is the continuing credibility given to what the U.S. newspapers say about the country, especially the New York Times.

So it was very odd to be in the UK recently a day or two after I had opened up the inner pages of the New York Times to find a map of the county of Devon, with Tiverton, the ancient market town I was then visiting to see my family, prominently displayed. The map accompanied a long piece on fox hunting, or rather on the enemies of fox hunting who were hiding in the bushes with binoculars and cameras to see if the local hunt was obeying the new legislation on blood sports which since 2004 had banned the hunting of foxes with hounds, or at least banned the hounds from doing what they are trained to do, run after foxes and when they catch one kill it. This was a gruesome spectacle to be sure. The fox is torn apart by the hounds. Now the hunters can hunt but the hounds must be restrained and the fox shot humanely; a sort of English compromise that has set up endless conflict in the countryside between hunter and animal rights advocates.

The New York Times correspondent had come to Devon to spend a day squatting in the bushes with anti-hunting advocates looking for the fox hunters and their hounds. As it turned out, it was a wasted visit. The hunt did not pass that way; but the story needed to be written. So there it was. As it turned out I had been in Tiverton on "Boxing Day" the day after Christmas last year and had passed by the old market square in the center of town. There the fox hunt was gathered outside the Half Moon Inn, resplendent in red tunics and with some 300 hounds milling around.

So in case The New York Times correspondent ventures into darkest Devon again, she needs to go to Tiverton on Boxing Day. There she will find the hunters hiding in full view.

Did the locals pay any attention to The New York Times story... not at all. I am not even sure they know, and much less care, what The New York Times is: a good lesson for Brazilians.

KENNETH MAXWELL is a weekly op-ed columnist (every Thursday) for Folha de São Paulo, Brazil's leading newspaper.