CNN Talkback Live: As good as it gets?

The ideal of a popular gathering of citizens to participate in journalistic endeavours has been rarely realised. Many of the regular media programs that actually do employ a "talk" format with audience participation are primarily concerned with topics so sleazy that it is embarrassing to speak of them as journalism. This article describes a television talkshow, CNN Talkback Live, in Atlanta where the ideals of trying to introduce genuinely people oriented journalism are bound by organisational and journalistic constraints.