Don't we expect our investigative journalists, to well, actually investigate things, instead of rushing to print?
In other words, NSA used court orders to access data with the knowledge (but gagging) of the companies (PRISM), while at the same time also hacking into the companies to access data without their knowledge (MUSCULAR). These things were both true.
For example, there was a famous slide showing when each company "joined the PRISM program", but the actual slide merely says "Dates when PRISM collection started for each provider". The reporter inserted the terminology "joined" which implies a partnership that didn't exist.
What these revelations reveal is that the NSA supplemented the data they got on a case-by-case basis through NSLs by outside-the-datacenter fiber taps of traffic, as well as upstream unencrypted HTTP and SMTP/IMAP traffic.
Which still does not contradict the original speculation that Google provided bulk data for PRISM. We do not yet know enough of all the stories as to judge who spied or helped to spy on us in what extend. There are too many lies, too many secrets and far too little liability out there to let the big companies of the hook yet.