It’s kind of related to the idea of not feeding the trolls. You can respond to something and make someone look like they’re incorrect. But sometimes people are after attention, in general, and so you can make matters worse by not having some discretion in which fights that you choose to engage in.
http://qz.com/137451/nate-silver-what-you-dont-say-speaks-as-loudly-as-what-you-do/