NBC's Ronna McDaniel meltdown marks latest news outlet to face revolt from liberal staff for GOP platforming

The practice of major news organizations hiring ex-lawmakers, government officials and political insiders has existed for decades and has largely been non-controversial. The purpose, particularly for TV networks, can vary from relying on experts to opine on certain topics to allowing diverse points of view to discuss the news of the day.

But the polarization of American politics and the increasingly liberal groupthink that has taken over newsrooms have upended a company's ability to make such decisions without workplace drama. And that is currently unfolding at NBC News.

On Friday, NBC announced that it had hired former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel as a political analyst for all of its platforms, including for its staunchly liberal sister network MSNBC.

NBC CONSIDERING CUTTING TIES WITH RONNA MCDANIEL AFTER INTENSE BACKLASH: INSIDER

"It couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team," NBC News political chief Carrie Budoff Brown said in a memo to staff.

That memo may be the only warm welcome McDaniel would receive from her new NBC family. NBC News reporter Brandy Zadrozny took to social media on Saturday to distance herself from her new colleague, saying "Reporters have no control over the opinion (or pundit) section."

Ahead of McDaniel's NBC debut on Sunday, "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker expressed a similar sentiment, telling her viewers "I was not involved in her hiring" and that she was conducting a "news interview" with the former RNC chair, who Welker said had booked to come on her show weeks ahead of the network's hiring decision.

Following Welker's tense interview with McDaniel, where she was grilled over her alleged actions in trying to block the certification of Michigan's