The 'Football' Mislabel of Short Film 'Flesh Impact' and a Lesson for Sports Journalism

Recently, The Express Tribune published an article about the short film 'Flesh Impact', directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal and starring Dakota Johnson and Ellen Burstyn. The film imagines Marilyn Monroe in two versions: one who died at 36 and another who lived to be 100. The information was announced at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, with a premiere on September 7. However, what caught the attention of the Vietnamese sports media community was not the film content, but the fact that the article was labeled 'football' in an automated classification system. This error raises questions about content quality control processes and how algorithms are shaping our consumption of information. The editorial teams of many sports websites now rely on automated tools to classify news. Algorithms often depend on keywords and context, but sometimes they completely misjudge. In the data analysis from the original article, all football tactical criteria were not applied. No players were mentioned, no matches were analyzed, and the number 22 minutes was not extra time but the film's runtime. The mislabeling may have occurred because the tool detected 'Venice' and 'Festival' but failed to recognize the actual context. The risk of spreading misinformation is significant without human oversight. The consequences of misclassification are especially severe in football. Analysts, investors, and fans can base decisions on mislabeled articles, just as a 'transfer rumor' turns out to be a movie review, misleading readers. Publishers must build semantic cross-checks, combining AI with sports editor supervision. This helps avoid 'signal noise' in an already overloaded information market. The sports media industry is experiencing a wave of technology adoption, but technology cannot fully replace human judgment. Data strategists must note that each field has its own terminology. The word 'goal' in football differs from 'touch' in music. When processing hundreds of thousands of articles daily, systems need training on diverse datasets and continuous updates. From 53 years of sports journalism, I realize this error is not unique. In 2026, while covering the Russia World Cup, one site mistaken the title of an article about a track athlete for a footballer, causing backlash. Such mistakes undermine the credibility of the entire industry. The core question is: are we delegating too much to algorithms? In an era of fake news and misinformation spreading rapidly, newsrooms must take responsibility for verification. The 'Flesh Impact' event is a warning that classification labels, whether human or machine-made, can be wrong. Editors need cross-disciplinary skills to detect anomalies. Looking broadly, during the football transfer window, tracking rumors and verifying sources is difficult; it becomes even harder when mislabeled algorithms mix sports news with entertainment. 'Flesh Impact' is a film about Marilyn Monroe, but if a football fan accidentally reads it because they think it's a tactical analysis, they will feel deceived. To prevent this, I suggest sports sites build a two-layer classification system: one using keywords and another using deep semantic analysis. The latter can rely on language models like GPT, but still requires human review. The initial investment may be high, but the long-term benefits of reliability are undeniable. In the case of the 'Flesh Impact' article, we can learn a lesson: before sharing or analyzing an article, check its origin and context thoroughly. This resembles a referee reviewing VAR before making a final call. Mistakes can be corrected, but the consequences will last. The Venice Film Festival is a major cultural event, unrelated to football. However, in the digital world, boundaries between fields become fragile. A film about a Hollywood legend appearing in a sports section is an 'own goal' by the automated system. This is the time for tech developers and editors to sit together, exchange ideas, and improve processes. Ultimately, I believe every article has its own 'soul'. As a sports journalist, our duty is to respect information accuracy. We should not let fans exclaim: 'This is a film, I thought it was football.' Let technology serve us, not control us. The field always needs true stories, and we must keep it pure.