Ron Paul Suggests Media Could Be Targeted By Government

Texas Rep. Ron Paul suggested Wednesday that the government could just as easily target the media or academics the way it did US-born al-Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki in a military strike last week.

Paul, the libertarian-minded congressman who's criticized the government's assassination of al-Awlaki in a missile strike last week in Yemen, argued that the strike opens a slippery slope toward broader targeting of citizens by the government.

"Can you imagine being put on a list because you're a threat? What's going to happen when they come to the media?" Paul asked during an appearance at the National Press Club. "The media becomes a threat or a professor becomes a threat. Some day that could well happen. This is the way it works. It's incrementalism."

More