There aren't much details available, but it seems that the driver appeared to be a pretty "normal" family man. If the criminal background/etc didn't turn anything up, then why would there be a significantly higher bar for Uber compared to a typical cab company.

I'm no über fanboy, but this certainly looks like a piece trying to stick it to Uber and generating negative PR which could scare future users from using uber. Bring out the pitchforks!