Point of contention, Graham- Those of us from Upstate New York* are rather famed for our non-regional diction. A lot of news anchors come to our area to lose their accents. So while we may be as snooty as faux British royalty, we don't sound like it.
*For clarity, upstate New York generally refers to an area stretching from Poughkeepsie to the top of the state in the Hudson Valley region. While it is true that Western New York does have the flat vowels of the mid-western accent, Upstate accents are pretty mild.