I thought they used Canadians for newscasters because our accent sounds neutral. 
It’d probably be fun to do another accents thread. Get everyone to read out the same passage or sentence.
I know of a girl from Clive who will argue tooth and nail that you have NO accent.
This youtube video has a woman doing a bunch of accents.
This is a fun database of accents: http://accent.gmu.edu/
Maybe we should start an audio clip wing of the SDMB gallery, so you can click on the pics and hear the person in question reading one of these semi-gibberish passages intended to disrupt the brain’s scan-ahead reading, the better to draw out and - well, accentuate - one’s unconscious phonetic tendencies:
*Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station. *
I would say that midwestern accents can be some of the most flat, if that is what I mean.
Neutral, maybe?
I am talking Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Missouri, and it seems (from my life long experience) that the more urban the area within those states, the less pronounced any accent will be.
Get out in the sticks, and people start sounding like cowboys, which I have been accused of being many times while online gaming.
I also have a friend from Iowa that moved to Texas recently and everyone that talks on the phone to her thinks she is from Texas.
Maybe we just have an easily adaptive accent around these here parts.
Also, no one ever thinks they have an accent, just everyone else sounds funny.
Cool idea.
…terribly.
Standard Canadian. More urban than rural, though, so not too pronounced.
I’m amused that both California and Midwestern English have been claimed to be “standard” American English. Midwestern English is a very heavy accent to my ears; Californian is much more neutral though still distinct.
I have a bit of Pittsburgh English from my family, but mostly Central Pennsylvania English, which is fitting since that’s where I’ve lived virtually my entire life.
I don’t drive, but if I did, I’d pahk the cah in the yahd. The Red Sox are wicked pissah!
Solid SoCal, with a sprinkling of Britishisms and badly pronounced French phrases tossed in to annoy my students.
To me they’re some pretty darn thick accents. Very American.
Cool! This one sounds like me.
I have a very pronounced East Texas Twang; none of my family members have this accent and I don’t know how I got it. I’ve had it all my life and it’s an integral part of who and what I am; if people don’t like it, too damn bad.
I have a fairly mild Northeastern accent. I mean, it must be mild considering I’ve met people who are incredulous that I’ve lived in New England all my life*. If I wanna I can perfectly ape a Down Maine/Northern New Hampshire accent, but that’s not what I really sound like.
*which is kind of stupid, considering that these people, always non-natives themselves, apparently think that people from New England are all supposed to sound the same way. If you listen to Mandy Moore, Sarah Silverman, Seth Meyers, and Misha Collins (his actual, non-Cas, speaking voice) can you tell where they grew up? Between living in MA and NH as a child, I lived within 10-50 miles of where all of them grew up.
Scottish, mild Glaswegian or general west coast. It’s been watered down by seven years in London and Kent, and three in Pennsylvania. It wasn’t all that strong to begin with.
I grew up in the northeastern edge of New York, where the native accent is Northern New England with a strong Quebec influence. Then to confuse things further, I’ve spent a lot of time in the New York City area, western New York, and Houston.
Me too, except mine has been slightly altered with a good dose of Spanglish. My kids have a full-on Mexican border accent. My mama swears she can’t understand their “northern” accents. :smack:
Mid-Atlantic US. This person on the “please call Stella” site is a pretty close match.