The Kilpatrick and Beatty text-messaging scandal was a political-sex scandal emerging from a whistle blower lawsuit involving former Detroit Police Chief Gary Brown, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former Chief of Staff and paramour Christine Beatty.
The scandal involved SMS messaging.
text-messaging can also be called SMS messaging because of the technology that it employs. I think that the system may be including other types of internet based messaging in its considerations.