A Massachusetts Reporter Once Went Viral During Story on ‘New Hampsha’

Boston Accent

Odds are, when you grow up in New England, you have some sort of accent. There are countless articles about the Maine accent and some tourists' difficulty understanding it (and we're talking strict accent, not even local terminology.)

If you grew up in the Merrimack Valley area of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, then odds are you've had a Boston accent or something closely relating that your whole life, as well.

Sexiest Accents in the USA

Which brings up a good point, actually, because according to Enjoy Travel, we're wicked sexy, bub.

In their list of The Top 50 Sexiest Accents in the USA, New England took two of the Top 5 spots, with the Mainer accent ranking #4 and the Boston accent just missing out on the top spot, ranking #2.

And as a dude that's done some traveling, I can definitely confirm that other areas of the country (except the Tri-State area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut) love the Northern New England accent (really, any combination of the Mainer and Boston accent.)

Basically, if you drop an "R," they'll drop their guard, at least based on my vacations to Nashville, Tennessee, and living in Tulsa, Oklahoma for a few years.

Which is especially good for New England natives who get into media.

22NEWS Ellen Fleming

Ellen Fleming is the former State House Reporter for the Springfield, Massachusetts news station WWLP/22NEWS.

Prior to that, she worked as a Producer for Channel 5 in Boston, and every credit to her before that is with some Massachusetts media outlet or company. Couple that with her going to Endicott College, and her Massachusetts/Boston-area roots run deep.

Which makes the slip-up she had in February 2023 while reporting from The Hall of Valor inside of the Massachusetts State House make absolute sense. Because as hard as you can train yourself to drop the Maine or Boston accent and actually pronounce your "R's" -- sometimes the "R's" still drop.

Like in New Hampshire.

It's the realization at the end for me that's the funniest part.