"It is ironic that Child seems to have objected to bawdy ballads, "
Can't think of any that fell into the 'ballad' category (as he appeared to have judged them)
He certainly included ballads with sexual content - rape, imncest, seduction... and occasionally commented on them critically
Censorship was rife right up to the period where the BBC was excluding material on political and sexual grounds from it's 1950s collecting
I seem to remember Legman writing that The Library of Congress did similar with erotic material

"Not to mention all the utter s**t that is on the web."
The lack of folk material on the web and the media has as much to do with the folk scene itself
A scene that has trouble with its own identity is hardly one that is going to win hears and minds elsewhere
I've been pretty impressed what is available on the web - Geoff Lawes thread has pointed that out
Jim