It is a key component of the gish gallop, which we've seen in full force from this administration. It has parallels to a packet multiplier DDOS attack in networking, where the attacker spends comparatively little bandwidth but causes the target to have to deal with much larger amounts of traffic.

For reference, this is typically called Brandolini’s law

Typically predated by numerous pre-internet proverbs. For reference:

Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it

and many variations

They're parasites