Was the reaction to Pebbles Hooper's tweet symptomatic of NZ's cyber bullying issue?

I try to steer clear of celebrity gossip but Pebbles Hooper's resignation from the NZ Herald is worthy of a blog post.  

For those who haven't been following the story, Pebbles tweeted that the deaths of three Ashburton children and their mother was natural selection.  The mother had left the car running to keep the battery ticking over.  They ended up dying as a result of the carbon monoxide fumes.

Hooper came under fire and drew many criticisms on Twitter with people calling her a bunch of nasty names.  She swiftly apologised for any offence caused saying that parents have a duty of care and on that point, she is right, however she could have been more tactful.  Over the coming days she deleted her Twitter account and then today the news broke that she'd resigned from her NZ Herald column effective immediately.

In media, when you're in the public eye people will want you to fail, they'll harass you and berate you for having opinions however when you resign you just let the bullies win.  Now we don't know if she was pushed or if she jumped voluntarily but in media you need a very thick skin if you're ever to survive.

It should be noted that Hooper's harassment comes just days after Fairfax's Stuff.co.nz published a story on NZ having the worst rate of bullying in the OECD and the same day The Guardian publishes a story about opinionated women being abused online.

Regardless of how we feel about Hooper's comments, which we can all acknowledge were stupid the question has to be asked, was Hooper's subsequent abuse symptomatic of NZ's cyber bullying issue?

Surely an apology and deleting social media accounts would've been enough.