" 
 :Well, if they were entirely ""interchangable"" we would expect rough parity in the usage. There is no such parity. (e.g. the 543 to 4 ratio) If there was some concern within the mainstream media (NPR, WaPo, etc) regarding some sort of ""bias"" with the term we would naturally expect less usage of the term ""IRS scandal"". What we find instead is the vast usage of ""scandal"" almost to the exclusion of other terms. Moreover, the term ""IRS scandal"" is the greatest, not as mere descriptors, but also in article titles and in tags, that is to say in how the media identifies the event.  We have a policy, I suggest that perhaps it might be time we start following it.   "