Ray Suarez has joined Al Jazeera America as the permanent host of its daily program Inside Story. The official announcement was made today. His first day hosting the program will be Monday, Nov. 11.
He will continue to be based in Washington, DC. The show airs Mon-Fri at 5 pm ET.
Before accepting the job at Al Jazeera, Ray spent 14 years as chief national correspondent for “PBS NewsHour.” He resigned, after considering he was being marginalized from the show and that there was no longer any room for growth for him at PBS. His last day there was Oct. 25.
Ray is the author of “Latino Americans,” the companion book to the 6-part PBS documentary series that aired in September. He spoke to Media Moves about his book and his role in the documentary, shortly before the release date.
A multi-award winning journalist, Ray was inducted into the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Hall of Fame in 2010.
Ray is the second Latino to get his own show on Al Jazeera America. Antonio Mora was the first. Antonio was hired as the host of “Consider This,” a current affairs talk show that airs weeknights at 10 pm ET. in July, before the network’s launch.
Ray’s hire signals the new network is following through with its commitment to open new bureaus in the United States and hire additional personnel, announced last week.