Passion, working hard and telling the story behind the story are just a few points John Seigenthaler and Mary Caraccioli reiterated about their ethics behind working for Al Jazeera America at the Journalism round table on Wednesday night.

Ambassador James Glassman, former CNN moderator and founding executive director of the George W. Bush Institute, introduced the hour by speaking about the importance of serious news networks needed in America.

“A lot of what you see on cable news is, I think, beneath the intelligence level of lots of Americans,” said Glassman. “America needs a real, serious, news network on cable. That’s what Al Jazeera America is doing.”

Being a journalist for almost 30 years including working at NBC for over a decade, John Seigenthaler didn’t think about being on camera again after leaving journalism.

“The reason I did [come back] was because Al Jazeera reached out to me,” he said.

Al Jazeera told Seigenthaler that they were putting together a brand new cable news network that will focus on serious news, filling the void of other cable news stations that don’t cover international stories.

“‘We want to draw an audience but our main focus is not ratings,” Seigenthaler recalls what Al Jazeera told him. “And that offer was too good for me to pass.”

Caraccioli, also a former news anchor who is now executive producer of Al Jazeera America, explained how working at Al Jazeera is unique experience.

“It takes a commitment, that’s hard, and that’s expensive and you’re not seeing that in a lot of American newsrooms,” she says.

The goal at Al Jazeera is to truly tell a story and not put on a quick show.

Caraccioli asked the students, “Why do you want to be journalists?”

“To hold the ones in power accountable,” said SMU Senior Trevor Cadigan.

“I want to hear the stories of the people who don’t always have a voice,” said Candice Bolden, a sophomore.

“To deliver information that ends up affecting the population so they can make their decision based on what journalists find,” added Jehadu Abshiro, executive producer of The Daily Update.

“It is expensive to produce the stories that we do that contain quality journalism,” Seigenthaler said. “MSNBC has abandoned coverage of news in exchange for this sort of point of view programming, in which people yell and scream,” he explains. “That’s not the kind of programming that you are going to see on our network.”

Traditional networks leave a hole that Al Jazeera America can fill for smart and sophisticated audiences that they believe are out there. Al Jazeera America wants to aim to the audience who to want to know what is really going on in the rest of the world.

“What you’ll see in not only Al Jazeera, but news in general, is that it pays to know everything,” Caraccioli said about the importance of being a well-rounded journalist. “That’s why going through a program like this [at SMU] is so important.”

Al Jazeera America was launched a little over a year ago. Al Jazeera has 12 bureaus in the U.S. and 70 around the world.

“How are you and Al Jazeera America trying to avoid over saturating news stories like CNN and other news sources do?” asked Cadigan.

Seigenthaler replied, “In some ways a story that might be on CNN for days or weeks, is probably not the story you are going to see on Al Jazeera America. It doesn’t mean we won’t cover that one story, we will, but we are also looking for other stories in other cities that CNN might have not told.”

Caraccioli said, “We care about stories that are going to affect your future and your parents. Whether it’s climate, immigration, or social issues… we’re not doing the horse race like the other cable networks.”

Caraccioli and Seigenthaler also addressed the issue of diversity within the reporters and anchors in the media.

“In some ways, the media has been behind the rest of the country when it comes to hiring people who don’t look like me,” said Seigenthaler. “Despite the civil rights movement, we were slow to hire African Americans. Despite the Women’s Lib[eration] Movement, we were slow to hire women… or Latinos or Muslims.”

Seigenthaler believes times are changing and the chance of seeing a more diverse news team is in the near future.

Al Jazeera America makes it ‘a huge priority’ to diversify the group of people on our air.

“When you walk through the Al Jazeera America newsroom, it’s like the UN. There are so many people from different backgrounds,” Caraccioli said.

Christopher Saul, a journalism major, asked, “You were at one point funded by the Qatar royal family, and I wanted to know how that influences how you report?”

“We are funded by Qatar and we also have editorial independence,” said Seigenthaler. “When I came to the network, editorial independence is one of the main things that I asked about.”

Al Jazeera America reporters and anchors are allowed to report without interference or influence from anyone that is associated with the Qatari government, the panelists said.

“There are no taboo subjects for us,” says Caraccioli. “If it’s important, it’s on our list. In fact if something is taboo in the world, we are more inclined to want to go after it.”

On the topic of the stereotypes Al Jazeera carries with its name, Seigenthaler said, “I think that Al Jazeera has grown and changed as the world has grown and changed.” Al Jazeera has added 29 different media networks around the world, including sports networks, a children’s channels, Al Jazeera Balkans, Al Jazeera English, soon to be Al Jazeera UK and Al Jazeera America.

“We won an Emmy, two Peabody awards and the RFK award, just in the first year we have been on the air,” Seigenthaler said. “There is clearly a commitment on the part of the Qataris to produce a quality journalism around the world.”