I lived in Georgia for many years, and the local newscasters all had neutral accents. Many of them weren’t “from around here”. It seemed to confirm a bias against the Southern accent, even among the local people. Of course, most of the TV stations were owned by large corporations, but it nonetheless reinforced the notion that the Southern accent was not credible or authoritative. As a transplant from California with my own biases, I learned to believe that at my own peril.