To misspeak is to make an error of the tongue: you meant Tuesday and said Thursday. It is a word for a slip. In politics it has become the word for a statement that was made deliberately, repeated for weeks, and then proven false.

The construction is precise. “I misspoke” has the grammar of an apology without any of the content. It admits that words came out. It does not admit that anyone chose them. The error is relocated from the mind, where a lie lives, to the mouth, where nobody is responsible for anything.

Mamet’s essay is about how language like this corrupts the speaker before the listener. A politician who has said “I misspoke” enough times has a category in their head for lies that are not lies, and that category only grows. The press, which ought to be the theatre Mamet hoped for, has mostly agreed to print the word without a raised eyebrow.