He won the Sigma Delta Chi National Profession Journalism Society Award for Editorial Writing in 1961.

[1][4] During the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 and 1980, Carter regularly appeared on network evening news,[1] coming into the public eye much more frequently than most of his predecessors and successors.

[6] Up until 1994, he held various positions for ABC, BBC, CBC, CNN, NBC, and PBS, including anchor, political commentator, panelist, and reporter.

[7][8] Throughout the 1980s, he was one of the rotating guest panelists for the roundtable segment of This Week with David Brinkley, while he also regularly wrote op-ed columns for various newspapers including The Wall Street Journal.

[9] Beginning in 1994, he served as the Knight Professor of Public Affairs Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park.