Tim Russert, moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press” and one of the world’s best-known journalists, died Friday afternoon after an apparent heart attack at the network’s Washington bureau, officials said.

Russert, who was also bureau chief, was preparing for Sunday’s broadcast and felt ill and collapsed, the officials said. 

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He was 58. His death was announced on NBC at 3:39 p.m. by Tom Brokaw, who had been his companion this winter and spring through long nights of Democratic primary coverage on MSNBC.

Russert, who served longer than any other moderator of the longest-running program in television history, started his Washington career as a Democratic congressional aide and rose to become the gold standard of Sunday television news show hosts. He was a relentless interviewer, feared by officials and politicians, yet his show was a highly prized forum because he was so respected.

His interrogational interviews forced candidates to clarify sometimes purposefully vague policy positions, while his analysis helped define the conventional wisdom of the horse race – occasionally earning the enmity of the campaigns.

Within moments of word of his death, tributes poured in.

“Laura and I are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Tim Russert. Those of us who knew and worked with Tim, his many friends, and the millions of Americans who loyally followed his career on the air will all miss him,” said President, traveling in France. “Tim was a tough and hardworking newsman. He was always well-informed and thorough in his interviews. And he was as gregarious off the set as he was prepared on it.

Rep. Dave Obey (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, called the death “a body blow for the nation.”

And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said, “His rise from working-class roots to become a well-respected leader in political journalism is an inspiration to many.”

“Tim asked the tough questions the right way and was the best in the business at keeping his interview subjects honest,” Reid added. 

The first in a long line of NBC Washington bureau chiefs who also opted to become moderator of “Meet the Press,” long the top Sunday morning news show, Russert was named by Time magazine this year as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Russert brought a new metabolism to the Sunday shows, turning what had been a leisurely chat into a rigorous examination that required extensive preparation by guests and their staffs.

Russert, who served longer than anyone else as the moderator of the longest-running program in television history, started his Washington career as a Democratic congressional aide and rose to become the gold standard of Sunday television news show hosts. He was a relentless interviewer, feared by officials and politicians, yet his show was a highly prized forum because he was so respected.
His tough interviews forced candidates to clarify sometimes purposefully vague policy positions, while his analysis helped define the conventional wisdom of the horse race – occasionally earning the enmity of the campaigns.

“He was a very affective interrogator and he prepared extremely well…it just made you want to watch him,” said Brit Hume, Washington managing editor for Fox News.  “He was an equal opportunity interrogator and nobody got a free ride on that program.”

The first of a long line of NBC Washington bureau chiefs who opted to become moderator of “Meet the Press,” long the top Sunday morning news show, Russert was named by Time magazine this year as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

From the moment the music came up, it was clear serious business was going to be done, and he relished the gravity of shows when guests were on for what he grandly called “the full hour.” \

His trademark slogan, “If it’s Sunday, ‘it’s Meet the Press,’ “became a Washington catchphrase.

Those were his last words on the show, which was unusual because the whole hour was devoted to a political roundtable with NBC News correspondents. He was on the air early for the French Open. “That’s all for today,” he concluded. “We’ll be back next week at our regular time.”
 
Russert was the show’s eighth moderator, taking over from Garrick Utley on Dec. 8, 1991.

Despite his status as the voice of the Washington establishment, he celebrated his background as a native of working-class Buffalo, N.Y., the son of an Irish-Catholic garbage truck driver.  He wrote lovingly of his relationship with his father, a World War II veteran, in two best-selling books, “Big Russ and Me,” and “Wisdom of our Fathers.”

A lawyer by training, Russert worked for the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) before making the transition to network news in 1984. By 1988, he was named to run NBC’s Washington bureau.

In this year’s historic presidential election, Russert was a central figure.

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign seized on his analysis during MSNBC’s May 6 primary election night coverage, when she won a surprisingly narrow win in Indiana and lost in a landslide to Barack Obama in North Carolina.

With election returns still rolling in – and even before his network called Indiana for Clinton – Russert essentially called the race for Obama.

“We now know who the Democratic nominee is going to be, and no one is going to dispute it,” he declared.

The rest of the television coverage was soon characterizing the results as having sealed the Democratic presidential nomination for Obama, leading the Clinton team to privately blame him for the emergent storyline.

Several weeks later, in the lead up to the May 20 primaries in Oregon and Kentucky, Clinton’s campaign began featuring Russert in an ad panning the Washington punditocracy. As muted video snippets of Russert, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and MSNBC anchors Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews appeared on the screen, a narrator intoned over their images: “In Washington, they talk about who’s up and who’s down. In Oregon, we care about what’s right and what’s wrong.”

His guests Sunday were to be Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), speaking for the Obama campaign, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), speaking for the McCain campaign, for a planned discussion on Iraq, the economy, rising gas prices and other issues. It was to be a classic show, concluding with a political roundtable featuring Dan Balz of The Washington Post and John Harwood of CNBC and The New York Times.

Kenneth P. Vogel contributed to this story.