A lot of it also has to do with culture and history. And yes, I think kids should hear some stories about how the real world (and life in genral) isn't perfect or always fair. I think it is unfair to make them always expect that everything will magically work out without any rational reasoning or hardwork on the part of the main characters. They need a good mixture of fiction and nonfiction. To compare war stories to fairy-tales is a major hyperbole. I'm sure what most kids today see on TV are 10x scarier than these fairy-tales; heck maybe thats why most of them don't like to read because they don't think it's scary, realistic, or interesting enough because their parents want to shelter them by only letting them read "safe stories" about loosing a tooth or learning to ride a bike. And yet, they assume that just because a show is a cartoon it is age appropriate for all children but since they don't watch it they don't realize it has violence or teaches bad habits- I read a blog about a mom that said she didn't let her 3 year old daughter watch 'Ni Hoa Kai Lan' anymore becuase the characters were always angry and getting attention by throwing temper tantrums and she said noticed after watching the show a few time her daughter was always acting angry and saying "I'm mad" even when she wasn't.

Anyway, it doesn't matter what the origin of the story was or the original point of the story was; it all depends on how it is told to it's audience (that's my inner drama geek talking) and how it is adapted to be age appropriate. Also I can say the same about 'Dora the Explora' being more for entertainment than for education purposes since she subconscienously teaches some really awful lessons to children (see my thread on 'kids shows'). Most stories can have a moral if you look hard enough, many family tv shows are for the main purpose of entertainment but also try to teach lessions in many of the plots (espesually teen/family dramas/comedies like Degrassi or 7th Heaven). That is also why it is important to ask 3-6 year olds open-ended questions after story time to know what they learned and tell the same story every so often to see how their comprehension of stories evolves.
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ETA:

Also just like you can make any story a 'fairy tale' you can also make it dark. Shows I watched when I was a kid have alot of consperacy theories on the internet now:

Ed, Edd, & Eddy All the kids that live in the cul-de-sac are dead. They are stuck in limbo and they still believe that they are alive. It is believed that they all died during different time periods ranging from the early 1900s-2000s. The only characters that are believed to be alive are the Kanker sister- it's thought that they may be witches who awaken the spirits of the other cul-de-sac kids and changed them from residual spirits into more interactive (or intelligent) spirits. That is why all the other kids in the cul-de-sac hate the Kankers- because they put a spell on the dead kids and wont let them cross over. That is why all the other characters have blue tongues and you never see adults or cars on their street. Also why they rarely went to school but even then you never saw a teacher or other students (abandaned school yard?)

Rugrats Angelica, Suzy, and possibly Dill are the only real rugrats. All the other ones are thought to be figments of Angelica's imagination. Angelica was supposively born addicted to drugs and her real mother OD'ed and died shortly after her birth. Angelica got over the withdrawls but the drugs left her paranoid and borderline schitzophrenic. Her father remarried a woman (Charlotte) who is too busy to see Angelica needs help and her father (Drew) didn't pay much attention to Angelica. Angelica's doll Cynthia is really a symbol for her dead birth mother- that is why she always idolized Cynthia and why her doll has really messed up hair. Tommy was a stillborn- that's why his dad was always in the basement making toys for his child that never got a chance to play. Chucky died with his mother in a car accident and that is why chaz is always a wreck he later married a woman Kira who always talked about her daughter Kimi who died of SIDS. Betty DeVille is believed to be a pro-choice feminist (explaining the symbol on her shirt) and was pregnant but terminated it; Angelica didn't know if it was a boy or a girl so she made them one of each twins. This is all why Angelica could talk to both the babies and adults- the adults thought she had imaginary friends she called the 'babies' so that is why they patronized her and pretended they existed and why she always got in trouble and blamed for things even when it was something the babies did. Suzy was Angelica's only real friend and she also played along and pretened to talk to the 'imaginary' babies she lets this go on until they are in their teens. Dil was eventually born but Angelica got mad that he wouldn't talk to her like the other babies did so she got mad and shook him which caused severe brain damage but he did survive which is why he is weird in 'All Grown Up'. Also Dr. Lipschitz, the child specialist that Didi always researches, is the name of the Pickles' and the Finsters' family pyschologist.

So yes even harmless kids stories and shows can be made into darker meanings then intended if you really try hard enough.

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