David Gregory, ousted host of NBC's "Meet the Press," said in a Wednesday interview that he doesn't miss the network.
"I don't miss being there. It was just the wrong atmosphere for me,"
he said on "CBS This Morning."
"NBC was concerned that if they let me have a last show to thank the audience that I was going to somehow go after them," he said, alluding to Ann Curry's famous departure from the "Today" show, when she broke down in tears on-air. "They wanted to avoid that. That was never going to happen. So they leaked the fact that they had made a decision for me to go."
After reflecting on his time at NBC, Gregory said he worked on examining his own conduct.
"Rather than get into all the nastiness of it, I just try to internalize what I take away from it," he said. If he'd communicated better, "people would have been rooting for me a little bit more, both at NBC and the broader community. I think I was so consumed and self-absorbed that I didn't think enough about communicating with people."
Ultimately, "people were not unhappy to see me get some comeuppance. I think I had to learn something from that."
Gregory said that he is now fully committed to promoting his new book, "How's Your Faith? An Unlikely Spiritual Journey," published by CBS-owned Simon and Schuster.
The book describes his recent pursuit and exploration of his Jewish identity, and how it interacts with the faith of his Protestant wife, Beth Wilkinson.
"In a moment like that, it was a real moment of testing," he said. "It was not the beginning of my faith journey, but it was a moment to say, 'Well then who do I want to be in this moment, for my kids? What is God expect of me in this moment? Who do I ultimately want to be? And that's where I tried to stay above the fray and express my thanks to the audience."
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