First up, the term "Iron Man" predates the Marvel character. There was even a comicbook character called "Iron Man" in the 1940s! There are plenty of other uses, too. There was (and for all I know still is) a body building magazine called IRON MAN. The actual title of the book that inspired THE IRON GIANT was THE IRON MAN. There is the Iron Man Triathalon. Cal Ripken carries the nickname "Iron Man". There were boxing movies titled IRON MAN in 1931 and 1951. According to Webster's, the term as used to describe a human of exception abilities was coined in 1902, before Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were even born.

So, plenty of sources for the name "Iron Man" for a reporter WRITING IN 2008. But this isn't like a super powered man flying 'round with something that looks like a big S on his chest, or a guy dressed up like a bat, or a guy named Doctor Octavius who's running around with metal tentacles.

Two figures battle, one looks like its made of iron, the other---doesn't. The press is "writing about the one left standing"? And did the article not mention the other one at all? No clever moniker attached to Stane's creation? "Mysterious Iron Man battles big metal guy…"?

Upthread, someone tossed off "Robot Man" as a more likely name to attach to Stark without the external need for him to be called "Iron Man". There was a fairly successful newspaper strip called ROBOT MAN, which in fact caused DC to lose ownership of that name! If a reporter was groping around for a name for this red and yellow non-iron looking figure, that might very well come to mind. Especially since the first thing that would almost certainly come to mind looking at Stane's suit would be… IRON MAN.

This is a variant of Cyclops being drawn with both eyes glowing visibly behind his visor, or Frank Miller's once-upon-a-time plan to give the Joker a mohawk. Sometimes we forget HOW characters came to have their names. (In the case I Cyclops, I brought this up at a con, many years ago, and was informed that he was called "Cyclops" because he fired beams of force out of his eyes!)

About the "Iron Man" song, I thought it was a bizarre Jesus what-if.

...vengeance from the grave, kills the people he once saved...

Jesus, despised and rejected and killed, comes back to wreak bloody havoc.

In any event, the song refers to the "iron" man as turned to steel and wearing heavy boots of lead too. Nothing remotely to do with the comicbook character.

There are just people somewhere who think it's kewl to associate the unrelated, e.g., using Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life" in a Royal Caribbean Cruise commercial!