Kathleen Carroll has sent many journalists to the Gulf Coast for Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

Amid the disaster, the executive editor and senior vice president of The Associated Press said the news coverage has made her proud.

“The events of the last 10 days should renew all of our spirits about what the (journalism) field can do to help people desperate or in need,” Carroll said Saturday during a speech at Kansas University.

She spoke as part of Kansas Editors Day at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union. KU’s School of Journalism sponsored the event.

Carroll, praising the resourcefulness of reporters, said a New Orleans AP sports reporter used her knowledge of the Superdome to report the conditions of the makeshift shelter. After using a pay phone to dictate stories back to AP bureaus, the writer slept in her truck each night to escape the conditions inside.

Efforts to thoroughly cover the conditions and the aid response while thousands were left stranded in the flooded city got the government moving, she said.

And the news media itself also has come under intense scrutiny, she said.

A letter from the United Nations asked the AP not to use the term “refugee” and to refer to those forced to leave New Orleans as “internally displaced persons” because they did not flee because of war or combat.

Kathleen Carroll, executive editor and senior vice president of The Associated Press, is shown around The News Center, 645 N.H., by Journal-World senior editor Bill Snead. Carroll was visiting Lawrence Saturday to take part in Kansas Editors Day at Kansas University.

“That’s not a phrase we are going to put on the (news) wire any time soon,” Carroll said.

But, as a result, the AP has begun to attempt to explain how it covers the news, such as more detailed photograph captions, Carroll said.

“We need to show how the sausage is made,” she said.

With the emergence of the Web log, or blog, Carroll warned against opinions claiming to be fact.

“Blogging and citizen journalism is a wonderful thing, but we can’t let ourselves become prisoners of the loudest shouter with the biggest keyboard,” she said.

About 70 were in attendance, included KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway, KU Provost David Shulenburger, area news editors, current and former journalism faculty, students and area journalists.

While answering questions, Carroll said she thought the Senate would confirm Judge John Roberts Jr. as the next chief justice of the United States.