There was no conspiracy to undermine Kalanick. Nobody is actually questioning the accusations levelled against him. The press simply followed the story, and people were interested in hearing about it. In doing so, they affected positive change at Uber. Everything worked as designed.

And yes: even as a private company, you're not immune from scrutiny of your action by the public. Your company is part of society, depends on the institutions, and can't ride roughshod over established norms of behaviour without also accepting the consequences.