Plante was posthumously awarded the Dunnigan-Payne Prize for lifetime career achievement on Saturday, April 29, 2023, at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

[3][4] His father, Regis, was employed as a field engineer for a heating company; his mother, Jane (Madden), worked as a school administrator.

[3] He was at the station for four years before being awarded a journalism fellowship by CBS to study political science at Columbia University.

[3][4] After completing his studies at Columbia, Plante started working for CBS News in June 1964 as a reporter and assignment editor.

[5][6] In March 1965, Plante went to Selma, Alabama and was there when state troopers assaulted marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in what was later dubbed "Bloody Sunday".

Other members of the press corps considered him to be an expert on the subject and became their unofficial sommelier during his tenure as White House correspondent.

[5] While covering Bill Clinton's visit to New Zealand, Plante bungee jumped over the Kawarau River alongside White House aides.