Actually, McGrath of Harlow, that's a really good question. Why
waste even a moment reading mediocre prose, watching bad movies
and worse TV, listening to lousy music, when there's better to be found? I guess you could see it as a sort of a character flaw or
a lack of discernment, an excess of openmindedness or evidence of
intellectual sluttishness of the worst kind. But sometimes it's a question of access - I live in a weird isolated pocket of the southwestern US, terrible local school, no budget for the library which consists largely, therefore, of donated Harlequin romances and Danielle Steele 'novels' and Louis L'Amour westerns, no radio
reception or (gasp!) cell phone reception, no theater, no organic veggies at the grocery store, one local band which plays bad music badly - if it wasn't for the internet, you could go really bonkers out here. (On the other hand, open space, privacy, virtually no crime, bald eagles that roost in my tree several months of the year,
stars at night so close and bright, clean air, clean water, no traffic...)

That still leaves the question, is it better to read trash or to read nothing at all?