The examples and perspective in this section deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. While perhaps most famous in politics, the phrase has also been used in business, sports, and entertainment.ĭespite some mockery of the phrase, its use is still widespread, and in the opinion of one commentator, 'the type of evasive and corrupted language for which Ron Ziegler was repeatedly pilloried for using as Nixon's press secretary is not only accepted, but heartily and shamelessly embraced as a norm of political and social conduct'.

A commentator at NPR declared this expression to be 'the king of non-apologies'. Political scientist William Schneider suggested that this usage be referred to as the 'past exonerative' tense, and commentator William Safire has defined the phrase as ' passive-evasive way of acknowledging error while distancing the speaker from responsibility for it'. The New York Times has called the phrase a 'classic Washington linguistic construct'. The word 'mistakes' also does not imply intent. The speaker neither accepts personal responsibility nor accuses anyone else. A less evasive construction might be along the lines of 'I made mistakes' or 'John Doe made mistakes' a similar active existential construction might be 'mistakes happened'. The acknowledgement of ' mistakes' is framed in an abstract sense, with no direct reference to who made the mistakes, or the nature and extent of the mistakes. ' Mistakes were made' is an expression that is commonly used as a rhetorical device, whereby a speaker acknowledges that a situation was handled poorly or inappropriately but seeks to evade any direct admission or accusation of responsibility by not specifying the person who made the mistakes, nor any specific act that was a mistake. For the Spencer Albee album, see Mistakes Were Made (album).

For the psychology book, see Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me).

John logan the mistake