Jim Bernstein, a longtime business journalist for Newsday, has been fired after 40 years with the paper, reports Claude Solnik of Long Island Business News.

Solnik writes, “Bernstein, whose byline vanished from Newsday last week, was fired Friday, about three months after a fellow employee accused him of inappropriately touching him two years ago.

“Bernstein denied the accusation and an independent investigation never corroborated it, according to sources.

“‘We cannot comment on a personnel matter,’ Newsday spokesman Paul Fleishman said.

“An attorney representing Bernstein said Newsday found no evidence of wrongdoing by Bernstein.

“‘They brought in a third-party investigator who spoke to everybody in the newsroom,’ said James Vagnini, an attorney at Valli Kane & Vagnini in Garden City. ‘It cost Jim a lot of money to get a lawyer for what he knew was frivolous. The investigator found no substantiation of this employee’s complaint.’”

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