The Ticker: Shep, ‘Exclusive,’ Sciutto…

> Why did FNC ever pull Shep Smith from the Middle East over the weekend? One Fox tipster calls it a “boneheaded move.” Today, Trace Gallagher hosted The Fox Report from northern Israel…

> “MSNBC is abusing the ‘exclusive’ label again,” an e-mailer says. “They’re calling their Condi Rice [Hardball] interview ‘exclusive.’ They should label it as ‘last’ because she was on O’Reilly and Newshour on Wednesday and Larry King on Thursday…”

> ABC senior foreign correspondent Jim Sciutto has been “granted rare access” to Iran. His reports from Tehran started airing today…

> Is Mika Brzezinski leaving CBS News? That’s what a tipster said last night, but she hasn’t replied to TVNewser’s e-mail yet, and a spokeperson had no comment this afternoon. Update: 8:15pm: A CBSer says news of her departure “started bubbling over a month ago and now it’s as good as official. Mika used to hear her name uttered as a possible Rather successor, but under the new executive regime she found herself barely making it on television. Sensing the inevitable, she quit…”