literally, an entry

i watched a lot of the prime time coverage of the olympics. one of my pet peeves was aired. one of the announcers, the guy who announced the diving, was talking about how strong the chinese fan presence was at the diving competition. he pointed out that you could see many red flags behind the platform. he said, imagine what it will look like in beijing olympics. "a sea, literally a sea, of red."

people have taken to using the world "literally" as some kind of generic word of emphasis. it makes me want to become a grammarian. i gaffe a lot, especially here, but it astounds me that people (professional announcers) don't know what they're saying.