News of Tim Russert’s death continues to dominate the worlds of politics and journalism with most politicians from the president on down issuing statements. The moderator of NBC News' “Meet the Press” passed away on Friday after being stricken at the bureau.

The 58-year-old television journalist and lawyer was working on recording voiceovers for Sunday's "Meet the Press" broadcast when he suddenly collapsed, NBC News said. He had recently returned from Italy where he celebrated the graduation of his son Luke with the family.

Tom Brokaw, the former anchor of "NBC Nightly News," described Russert as a premier political journalist and analyst of his time while announcing his death.

"This news division will not be the same without his strong, clear voice," Brokaw also said.

"The pre-eminent political journalist of his generation,” as presidential candidate John McCain labeled him; Russert was named one of the most 100 influential people in the world by the Time Magazine in 2008.

David Broder, the guest with many presences on "Meet the Press", underlined a fact sensed by many other journalists – Russert’s death leaves “a large void in this community”, the Washington Post reported.

"Family came first, but he took the time for friendships, and he nourished them,” Broder added.

"Russert was defined as much by what he was not as by what he was. He was not lazy or lax, he was not an ideologue or a cynic. Beyond his family, Russert's passion was politics, and he cared enough about the game to try to keep it, and its players, honest," said New Yorker editor David Remnick.

The man described as “the best political journalist in America, not just the best television journalist in America" (Al Hunt - Washington executive editor of Bloomberg News) was awarded an Emmy in 2005 for his role in the coverage of the funeral of President Ronald Reagan.

"He absolutely set the standard for moving from politics to journalism," Hunt said about Russert.

"He proved it could be done with extraordinary skill and integrity."

Russert “had a better political insight than anyone else in the room, period," as chief executive of NBC Universal, Jeff Zucker, said, and it showed. In 2000, Russert won the Joan S. Barone Award (the Radio and Television Correspondents' highest honor) and the Annenberg Center's Walter Cronkite Award for his "Meet the Press" interviews with George W. Bush and Al Gore.