Steve Bannon caused the New Yorker festival to go down in flames on Twitter

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Steve Bannon.

• The New Yorker announced that Steve Bannon, who embraces the label of "racist," would headline its 19th annual The New Yorker Festival.
• New Yorker staff members, journalists, and prominent celebrities quickly attacked the decision on Twitter.
• Within hours, several top celebrities had announced they would not attend the festival.
• The New Yorker reversed course by 5 p.m., saying it would look for another format.
• Despite being deeply hated by media figures, Bannon has enjoyed significant political success, and arguably dismantled a top-tier event celebrating intellectualism in media with just the mention of his name.

The New Yorker's choice to have former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon, widely viewed as a far-right racist and nationalist, headline its festival brought on a Twitter firestorm that saw big names pull out in droves and the vaunted magazine swiftly reverse course.

Early on Labor Day Monday the New York Times reported that Bannon would headline its 19th annual The New Yorker Festival.

The editor of the magazine, famous for its deep reporting, high-minded think pieces, and New York state of mind, would interview Bannon live on stage in front of an audience.

"I have every intention of asking him difficult questions and engaging in a serious and even combative conversation," editor David Remnick told the Times.

By 5 p.m. that same day, the New Yorker's editor, David Remnick, issued a length statement saying that he had "re-considered" after talking to colleagues.

"I don't want well-meaning readers and staff members to think that I've ignored their concerns," Remnick wrote in a statement, adding that "If the opportunity presents itself, I'll interview him in a more traditionally journalistic setting as we first discussed, and not on stage."

Pulitzer prize-winning New Yorker writer Kathryn Schulz gave "the gift of honest criticism" to Remnick by tweeting that she was "appalled" by the decision and sharing Remnick's email address.

And before disinviting Bannon, big names including Jim Carrey, John Mulaney, Patton Oswalt, and Judd Apatow had all announced in a similar fashion that they'd no longer attend the event within minutes of each other.

Even after Remnick backed off from the Bannon interview, late night host Jimmy Fallon and comedian Hassan Minhaj announced their departures.

So in a matter of hours on a holiday Monday, the Twittersphere rejected and dismantled a festival that represents some of the top tier of US media intellectualism, all due to Bannon.

Bannon seized upon the opportunity to bash Remnick as a coward, and to paint the withdrawn celebrities as a mob of over-sensitive complainers with political motives.

"The reason for my acceptance was simple: I would be facing one of the most fearless journalists of his generation," Bannon told The Times. "In what I would call a defining moment, David Remnick showed he was gutless when confronted by the howling online mob."

"Progressives are triggered like never before," Bannon continued.

While Bannon refers to himself as an economic nationalist, rather than a white ethnic nationalist, he has frequently supported movements accused of Islamophobic or otherwise racist smears.

But despite Bannon's close associations with far-right movements reviled by celebrities and much of Twitter, he's embraced labels such as "racist" and enjoyed tremendous success as an early supporter of and aide to President Donald Trump.

"You argue for your freedom and they call you a xenophobe. You argue for your country and they call you a racist," Bannon said at a French far-right National Front party conference. "Let them call you racist… Wear it as a badge of honor. Because every day we get stronger, they get weaker."