Based in Los Angeles for most of his career, Benti later worked as a local anchor for KABC-TV and KNXT before retiring from journalism.
[2] Benti's early career included serving as a newsman and straight man for WTHI-TV-10's "The Jerry Van Dyke Show" in Terre Haute, Indiana, alongside the actor.
Benti co-hosted the CBS interview show Face the Nation with Martin Agronsky on December 15, 1966, when they interviewed Eugene Carson Blake, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, and a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr.[4] When Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, Benti was at a nearby bar before preparing for his duties as CBS Morning News anchor.
[5] Benti interviewed President Gerald Ford in Sacramento on September 5, 1975, only hours after Manson family member Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme attempted to assassinate him.
[8] Benti later would provide commentary in newspapers and on radio, which included a stint at KJOI-FM 98.7 (now KYSR), then hosting a special series for PBS member station KCET called "By the Year" in 1991.
[1] In 1968, Benti was named to the University of Iowa's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences School of Journalism and Mass Communications Hall of Fame.