BROOKE GLADSTONE: From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield. For months, the news in Iraq had been of bombings and beheadings, ambushes and assassinations. A guerrilla war defined by the guerrillas. But suddenly last week, it was war once again, war American style, and certainly American media style. [TAPE PLAYS] [CNN THEME MUSIC]

MAN: Threatened for months, brewing for weeks, imminent for days. Now, it is under way. The Pentagon calls it "Phantom Fury" - a "Shock and Awe" Army and Marine U.S. and Iraqi campaign to re-take Fallujah. [MACHINE GUN BURSTS]

MAN: The first objective for the Marines that we're embedded with is to take this apartment complex behind me. They're sweeping it for potential insurgents, to clear out civilians, and they're also looking for improvised explosive devices. [TAPE ENDS]

BOB GARFIELD: The first objective of the first wave of Marines, however, was not an apartment complex. It was a hospital, which American officials complained was controlled by insurgents for use primarily as a propaganda mill. In April, the first attempt to re-take Fallujah was aborted after the hospital's reports of widespread civilian casualties inflamed international outrage. It's not clear that those numbers were inflated, because in Iraq, it seems nobody agrees on anything -- neither the enemies nor the allies. This was Army General George W. Casey on Monday, briefing reporters on the latest developments in Operation Phantom Fury. I mean -- not Operation Phantom Fury. [TAPE PLAYS]

GEORGE W. CASEY: The name of the operation is an Arabic name -it's called - it's "Al Fajr" - and it's the Iraqi word for "dawn," and the Iraqi prime minister selected this for obvious reasons. [TAPE ENDS]

BOB GARFIELD: Of course. This was, after all, a pacifying operation, and Phantom Fury sounded so destructive and-- furious. The cable news networks adjusted their scrolls accordingly. It was one of the many reminders throughout the week that the information warfare would be as fierce as the street fighting. And for the Iraqi government, priority number one was conveying the idea that they weren't mere American collaborators but were actually in charge. The press didn't necessarily bite, but they obliged at least by passing along heroic pictures and story lines. [TAPE PLAYS]

MAN: Videotape of a flag-raising by soldiers of Iraq's First Brigade was re-played at a press briefing near Fallujah, featuring both a U.S. and Iraqi general. [TAPE ENDS] [TAPE PLAYS]

WOMAN: We have some breaking news coming out if Iraq. This is from near Fallujah. It's from the commander of the Iraqi forces there. He says that they have found what they're calling "hostage slaughterhouses" in Fallujah. This is where they say foreign captives were held and killed. They found a number of the black clothing used - that the captors would use to identify themselves. Hundreds of CDs and records with names of hostages. What's not clear.... [TAPE ENDS]

BOB GARFIELD: No hostages were actually found there, and the Iraqis furnished no evidence that the hostages were killed there, but challenge the official story at your own peril. On Thursday, Iraq's media regulator invoked the state of emergency declared prior to the Fallujah assault and ordered news organizations to stick to the government line or face legal action -- specifically the media were told to distinguish between insurgents and ordinary residents of Fallujah, the civilians being the ones who were unharmed by the assault. [TAPE PLAYS]

WOMAN: General Tom Metz says the enemy has suffered significant losses, greater than the U.S. military anticipated. He said there have been very few civilian casualties. [TAPE ENDS]

BOB GARFIELD: But it wasn't just that the enemy had suffered heavy casualties. Pentagon spokesmen broke with decades of military doctrine by issuing body counts, which the media dutifully reported. [TAPE PLAYS]

MAN: Mop-up operations are expected to last another day or two. U.S. casualties are still described as light with enemy dead put at more than 500. [TAPE ENDS] [TAPE PLAYS]

MAN: The commander of U.S. forces there says that up to 600 insurgents have been killed, along with 18 American and 5 Iraqi soldiers. [TAPE ENDS]

BOB GARFIELD: Suddenly, it sounded so familiar. Body counts, à la Vietnam, and homegrown soldiers doing their share, like the South Vietnamese Army, and reporters not knowing who to believe. And just when the battle zone comes under American control, more bad news from somewhere else -- in Mosul and Ramadi and another place -- the seat of Iraqi government. [TAPE PLAYS]

MAN: Tonight, armed insurgents also have a very visible presence in several neighborhoods in Baghdad. Some residents are calling parts of the capital "Mini-Fallujah." [TAPE ENDS]

BOB GARFIELD: Perhaps, the next pacification operation will be there. Before that, however, some of the public opinion molders at the Pentagon would be well advised to look up the word "phantom."