A few free ways around paywalls, region-blocking, adblock-blocking, and URL glitches:
• archive.today
slow-loading, virtually unreadable without adblocker
• Ghostarchive
poor layout, spotty uptime
• Google Cache
frequently fails, but reliably captures video when it works
• Internet Archive (Wayback Machine)
slow-loading, but works
• One Foot Away
poor layout, quick-loading, spotty uptime
• 12-Foor Ladder
poor layout, quick-loading, spotty uptime, blocks major newspapers
If there are other workarounds, please let me know.
Much more likely explanation: He was lying when he made the ‘pledge’.