Charley Cooper, an undergrad at Georgetown University, is a busy kid. So he's hiring a personal assistant. Ten to twelve bucks an hour. Five or so hours a week. What—you expect him to do his own laundry?

According to the Washington Post's Jenna Johnson, Cooper posted an ad on a Georgetown jobs board last week looking for someone to do the wash, drive him to and from his part-time job at—wait for it—a financial services company, pay parking tickets, run errands, and schedule hair appointments.

A lot of Cooper's fellow students are aghast, and think entitled trust-fund twits like Cooper give Georgetown a bad name as a finishing school for entitled trust-fund twits, which it is. But come on—Cooper was raised in Bethesda, graduated from the Landon School, a private "boys' school" designed to turn out incipient entitled trust-fund twits, and his "Linked-In profile says he is considering jobs in finance, entertainment or both," so what are we really to expect of him?

Based on the ludicrousness of the wanted ad itself, which is posted in full below and says things like "tasks such as doing laundry that involve a lot of waiting around (time when you could be doing other tasks or doing your own stuff) will be counted for the approximate amount of time it would take to do the labor involved, [so] laundry will be counted for half an hour even though a laundry cycle takes 1.5 hrs to complete," we're pretty sure it's a prank. But it's in the Washington Post, so it's got to be true, right? Also, this YouTube video of someone named Charley Cooper's trip to Cancun during Spring Break 2008, which is posted on the same page as several other videos by a Charley Cooper who attended the Landon School and so almost certainly by Charley Cooper in question, presents independent corroborating evidence of trust-fund twit entitlement:

The Post interviewed Cooper for its story, but he insisted that it be conducted over Facebook—another red flag (that's his Facebook photo above). He said the need for someone to schedule his hair appointments was prompted by an illness in the family, and that "if I didn't already have a job, I would definitely be interested in a job that pays 10 to 12 dollars per hour and is flexible in terms of hours."

Hoax or no, the Case of Charley Cooper brings to our attention a serious matter: The increasing willingness of newspapers to appropriate the hard work of bloggers. Cooper was first reviled as a "prematurely self-important" by the blog of student newspaper the Georgetown Voice on Friday, and today the Post picked up the story in whole cloth, adding only an interview with Cooper and a wealth of background information and reporting on him. Isn't it a blogger's job to mock twits like these? And if newspapers are free to just grab instances of eyeball-exploding arrogance and unearned wealth from blogs and serve them up to their readers in exchange for a mere link, how are blogs supposed to survive? Just asking.

Here's the ad:

Job Description:

I am a Georgetown undergrad student and part time employee in the financial services industry. I am looking for someone to take care some of my everyday tasks for 1 hr a day, 5 hrs/ week, $12/hr. I live on campus which would make things very easy convenient for a Georgetown student. The normal pay per week will be $60 ($300/month), even though on occasion it will be possible to work additional hours and/or receive bonuses at my discretion.

The schedule is completely flexible because I do not need to be around when you do the work. You can even spread it out over the course of the day. As my PA you will receive an email once a day by 9:00 am with a task list for that day and a time estimate for each task. Important tasks will be bolded on the list and must be done that day (even though everything on the list should theoretically be finished on a daily basis). At the end of the day you will send me an email telling me what tasks are incomplete or that all tasks have been completed.

Tasks such as doing laundry that involve a lot of waiting around (time when you could be doing other tasks or doing your own stuff) will be counted for the approximate amount of time it would take to do the labor involved. For instance, laundry will be counted for half an hour even though a laundry cycle takes 1.5 hrs to complete.

Job Requirements:

PA example tasks -Organize closet -make bed -Drop off / pick up dry cleaning -Drop me off / pick me up from work -Do laundry -Fill up gas tank -bring car for servicing -schedule appointment for haircut -Pay parking tickets -manage electronic accounts -shopping and running errands -other random tasks.

Preference will be given to applicants who are comfortable with city driving (car will be provided) and who are available when I need to be picked up and dropped off for work. Preference will also be given to Georgetown undergrads for convenience.

Available Openings: 1

Hours: 3.0 to 7.0 hours per week

Compensation: $10.00/hour to $12.00/hour, Occasional Bonuses

Start Date: Immediately

End Date: End of School Year

Time Frame: Academic Year