I saw that. The slant was for letting news of this get out. I hope that isn't the case, "shooting the messenger", but it might be.
To me the bad judgement was the port call in the first place.
Maybe it was a combination of the two, which would be fair. IMO a captain who puts his own chestnuts in the fire then asks HQ to pull them out, can expect to be relieved. The main thing at this point is to keep the crew healthy.