The fact that the press dined out on this story for days on end is an indictment, and a sad reflection on the state of the media today.
The demise of quality journalism is one of the main reasons the industry is in decline.
This incident served to reinforce the view that they are becoming, to use media commentator Brian Edwards' description, 'trash tabloids', with a focus on 'gossip, celebrities and sensation'.
The Mad Butcher story also serves to remind us of a destructive intolerance to free speech that has now pervaded society.
At one time you could call a spade a spade, and if you inadvertently offended someone, then such was life.
But these days the rise of political correctness means that if you say something that social activists consider to be wrong you can be mercilessly hounded, ridiculed and humiliated, your career threatened and your reputation ruined.
We saw this last year when the executive chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi, New Zealander Kevin Roberts, was forced to resign following a storm of criticism from feminist groups after he challenged a prevailing view about diversity.
When asked by a reporter whether there was a problem with a lack of gender diversity in the advertising industry, his response, 'Not in my view', was not what the feminists wanted to hear, and the barrage of ugly protest led to him stepping down.
Massey University chancellor Chris Kelly suffered the same fate just before Christmas.
Discussing changes to their veterinary degree course, the former veterinarian explained that there was a high fallout rate of male students, and with female vets taking time off from their careers to raise families, there was a shortage of vets, especially in rural areas.
Feminists dived in to the attack, twisting his comments and claiming they were sexist and insulting to women.
That's not what he intended, of course, but nevertheless, a week later he resigned.
Political correctness is being used by vested interest groups to force new norms of thought and behaviour on to society.
Nowadays, if you are not 'sensitive' enough in embracing values such as tolerance and diversity, then you will be aggressively attacked and stigmatised by activist critics, including in the media.
In seeking to impose a uniformity of thought and behaviour on to society, the roots of political correctness are totalitarian.
Dr Samuel Gregg, the director of research at the US think tank the Acton Institute, says the key to controlling culture is to manipulate language by changing its meaning.
This is the thinking behind the PC attacks on the likes of Kevin Roberts, Chris Kelly, and Peter Leitch - their comments were taken out of context by activists and portrayed as prejudice in order to advance their agenda.
It is also the thinking that underpins identity politics, or identity liberalism, where the struggle for social justice has moved from its traditional focus on the working class to the so-called 'oppressed' groups in society centred on gender, race and sexuality.
Anyone who dares to criticise an increase in the rights and privileges for these groups will be attacked by modern day socialists and labelled racist, xenophobic, sexist or bigoted.
With its focus on group rights, identity politics is leading to a rejection of the fundamental concept of equality, fought for by human rights campaigners such as Martin Luther King: 'I look to a day when people will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.'
Character appears to be of little regard to modern day activists; to them it's about skin colour, gender, sexual orientation - anything but the universality of character.
The reality is that unless the political left abandons identity politics, and political correctness, they risk generating a cultural backlash from Kiwis who are sick and tired of being sneered at and vilified by left wing activists whenever they speak their mind.
With a growing feeling that political correctness is out of control, it is clearly time to rein it in.
Firstly, the fact that the Human Rights Act makes it illegal to insult anyone in New Zealand is being used by social justice activists to justify their attacks on the free expression of others.
Under the act it is unlawful to promote anything that is threatening, abusive or insulting - and while the Human Rights Commission claims the threshold for complaints is very high, the penalty is a criminal conviction, with imprisonment for up to three months or a fine of up to $7000.
It is clearly time that the word 'insulting' was removed from the Human Rights Act, but in reality, to knock back the political correctness that is stultifying society we need to go further and abolish the whole act, since we already have a Bill of Rights to protect our freedoms.
In addition, all forms of affirmative action, whether in laws, regulations, policies or programmes, should be hunted down and eliminated.
The media too have a role to play by recognising when they are being manipulated by the PC brigade and rejecting their advances in favour of common sense.
