“I was misquoted.” “My quote was taken out of context.” “That’s not what I meant.” How many times have you heard someone say that?

Not nearly as many times as I’ve heard it, I guarantee you. I used to be a newspaper reporter. And I also used to be a VP of public relations. So I’ve both misquoted and been misquoted.

My point? It happened to me recently. And as a result, an article in which I was quoted, came off making me sound as if I was criticizing a good friend.

In response to a question about how the 2009-10 campaign had gone, I said we’d experienced a number of plusses and minuses—including Intel’s campaign being down overall.

I explained that Intel’s very generous employees had actually given about $70,000 more than in 2008-09, but that Intel had changed the way it matched gifts and the overall total was down.

I pointed out that this was because, like many others, Intel had been buffeted by rough economic times. And I went out of the way to say I was not being critical of Intel’s decision.

For whatever reasons, this latter part of my comments didn’t make it into the story and I’ve gotten some feedback that some of our friends at Intel were taken aback by my quotes.

So, for the record, “My quote was taken out of context!” If you want to know what I think about Intel, its campaign and its people, see the piece in the Sacramento Business Journal.