Cissy Houston calls media 'awful'

U.S. gospel singer Cissy Houston says the media has been "awful" in the wake of her daughter Whitney's accidental drowning death Feb. 11. "The media are awful. People have come from here and there, [and they] don't know what they're talking about. People I haven't seen in 20 years. ... Here they come, [they] think they know everything, but that's not true," Cissy Houston told New Jersey television station WWOR about attention-seekers who have spoken without authorization about her daughter. "But God has his way of taking care of all of it, and I'm glad I know that. They really chopped on her." Houston, 78, also slammed published reports claiming her Grammy Award-winning daughter was nearly out of money when she died in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton hotel shortly after using cocaine. "She's not broke. She's not anything, none of that crap," she said in the interview. After Whitney Houston's death at age 48, much of the media's coverage was devoted to her battles with drug and alcohol abuse, as well as her erratic behavior and stormy relationship with her ex-husband Bobby Brown, who left her funeral after minutes because he allegedly got into an argument with her family. The National Enquirer also published a photo showing the pop icon laying in her casket and reported details about valuables supposedly buried with her. Bobbi Kristina, Whitney Houston's 19-year-old daughter with Brown, has been in the spotlight since the singer's death, as well. Some media reports have said she, too, is abusing drugs and alcohol, while others claimed she is romantically involved with a young man she lived with most of her life and was raised to regard as her brother.