The wonderful and meticulous Media Research Center passed out its “DisHonor” awards for liberal media bias at a dinner in Washington last night. On big-screen TVs, the MRC replayed the worst of the worst. But the hands-down most awful thing spoken on television last year came from the mouth of Ted Turner, in an exchange about North Korea with Wolf Blitzer on CNN. It’s a real jaw-dropper:

Turner: “Well, you know, I was optimistic about the Cold War when I got to Russia, too. But I looked them right in the eyes. And they looked like they meant the truth. I mean, you know, just because somebody’s done something wrong in the past doesn’t mean they can’t do right in the future or in the present. That happens all the, all the time.”
Blitzer: “But this is one of the most despotic regimes and Kim Jong Il is one of the worst men on Earth. Isn’t that a fair assessment?”
Turner: “Well, I didn’t get, I didn’t get to meet him, but he didn’t look, in the pictures that I’ve seen of him on CNN, he didn’t look too much different than most other people.”
Blitzer: “But look at the way, look at the way he’s, look at the way he’s treating his own people.”
Turner: “Well, hey, listen. I saw a lot of people over there. They were thin and they were riding bicycles instead of driving in cars, but–”
Blitzer: “A lot of those people are starving.”
Turner: “I didn’t see, I didn’t see any, I didn’t see any brutality…

Read more from the transcript here.