Watchdog Journalism: A Necessary Evil? Or Just.... Evil?

As we discussed in class (and on the recent quiz) watchdog journalism refers to the independent scrutiny of government and business by the media. This type of journalism is based on the tenet that "the people have a right to know". I don't know about most people, but sometimes I don't think that "the people have a right to know". For example, the recent Wikileaks controversy. Something about a supposedly loyal government employee or soldier handing over secrets and classified information to the media and posting it online seems wrong to me. What if the release of such information causes the death of Americans or our allies? What if such information hampers the efforts of our government in apprehending terrorists or criminals? Whenever I watch a news story or read an article about classified information I worry that such information could be used by our enemies in the ways I just mentioned. In class we learned that the release by the media of information about an international government system of tracking and monitoring banks caused the complete shutdown of that program. That program was used to track the flow of money through terrorist networks, thereby aiding their capture or elimination. While this program had the potential to be used in immoral and illegal ways, it was an invaluable tool in the war on terror. In my opinion, sometimes the American media does a better job protecting our enemies than our enemies could otherwise do on their own.
I am in no way claiming that the people don't have at least some right to know what their government is up to, after all, some measure of transparency is needed if we are to remain a democratic nation. However, in some cases this may become a weakness our enemies could exploit. There has to be a better way of letting the people know, a way that reveals what we actually  need to know as opposed to everything. Information on the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, illegal governmental monitoring of citizen communications, and whether our government is acting in a moral manner in general is information that I feel we need to know, but more sensitive data such as how we track and kill terrorists should be and usually is kept classified and on a need to know basis. Until the day that war and hostility between nations and individuals no longer exists there will always be a need for secrecy and keeping certain information classified. Until that day, watchdog journalism should be more limited than it has been in recent years as the apparent decline of the practice has not been enough to prevent what some would call disloyal and unpatriotic releases of classified information.